# Copacetic

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copacetic/179832>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [June 5, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copacetic/179832 "2003-06-05T14:49:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copacetic/179832/21 "2003-06-08T20:48:35Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> If Mr. Bojangles was largely responsible for popularizing the word, perhaps he picked it up from some of his Yiddish-speaking, entertainment industry associates?

**Martin**. Robinson played almost exclusively in Black nightclubs until 1928. He wasn’t in Hollywood before that. Exactly _when_ Robinson started using the word I haven’t found. He certainly may have popularized it at sometime.

Since the word is used in two stories in [i[Variety\* in 1921 and 1922, one assumes the story that Robinson _invented_ the word probably isn’t true. I know that you didn’t say that. You were merely speculating about _where_ Robinson might have gotten the word. And, of course, he could have worked with a Yiddish speaking performer prior to 1919, and heard the word from that source.

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**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copacetic/179832/22 "2003-06-08T21:02:50Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> As a full-time Hebrew speaker, I must attest that Kyla:  
> is, if anything, still understating the issue.  
> when asked “Ma Nishma?” (how’s it going?) my response will definitely be “Hakol Beseder” (all’s well).  
> That I would normally be lying is, of course, completely beside the point ☹  
> \*\*

Yay! For a moment there I thought maybe everyone was laughing at me when I answered with “hakol b’seder” to “ma nishma?” a few thousand times.

**Noone special** , ani mekavah sh’hakol yihiyeh beseder.

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**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copacetic/179832/23 "2003-06-09T11:34:12Z")

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bib and Dex, I think those two posts qualify yourselves as “co-pathetics”

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copacetic/179832/24 "2003-06-09T13:32:54Z")

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Hey! I resemble that remark.

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copacetic/179832/25 "2003-06-09T22:20:03Z")

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Pay no attention to the Mentock behind the curtain.

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