Word Prompt – SABABA – Adena Berkowitz

Many years ago, William Safire, the legendary language maven at The New York Times looked at the origins of the word “copacetic,” which is slang for all is ok. Did it come from Indigenous Americans, Louisiana French, or African Americans? He noted that the famous African American entertainer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson popularized it in the early 20^th century. And Safire went on to completely dismiss the urban legend that the word was based on the Hebrew term kol b’seder!

I thought about this when considering the Hebrew word sababa. What is its origin? It is actually based on the Arabic tzababa, which means great or wonderful. In modern Israeli use it means “everything is copacetic; everything is great, all is cool, chill, awesome.”

My suggestion for its use is to kick it up a notch – and wrap it together with phrasing frum Jews pepper their speech with. So here goes. When someone will ask you how your day is going, let’s give it a twist: Baruch Hashem, sababa!