[Ads-l] Copasetic notes

[Jonathan Lighter]

Because they are fictional, none of these statements can be taken at face
value.

I agree that "coralapus" looks factitious, but that tells us nothing about
the prior history (if any) of "copasetic."


JL

On Sat, Mar 11, 2017 at 1:32 PM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> Well. Who do you mean "we"...? If by "we" you refer to the fictional
> characters including the narrator, well, yes, maybe, to some, but only
> some,  extent. But of the author, I don't think so. If one reads, beyond a
> snippet, pages 286 and 287* one may find that  the words copasetic and
> coralapus are quite closely linked. Does anyone doubt that coralapus
> appears here and nowhere else (except reprints and maybe commentary quoting
> this book) in the twentieth century and before?
>
> Of coralapus (p. 286, my bold):
>
> "...of its general significance, as it fell from her lips, there could be
> no doubt in any but the most obtuse intellect. For her it had a large and
> noble, although a rather indefinite meaning, entirely favorable to the
> person or object to which it was applied."
>
>
> Stephen Goranson
>
> http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/
>
>
>
> https://books.google.com.cu/books?id=Ql1geDtNSCkC&
> printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=copasetic&f=false
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <...>
> Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 1:22:58 PM
> To: ...
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Copasetic notes
>
> >  In the purported original, it "signified an unusual depth of meaning,"
> so it did not yet have the modern meaning.
>
> My lexico-spidey sense tells me that this may be no more than coy humor
> meaning, "We don't know what the heck it means or where it comes from."
>
>
> JL
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