“Cool,” to “be cool”: Synonyms, History, Meaning, Thoughts
Berkeley Brett
I think the word “cool” is one of the sturdiest slang words in the
English language. Frank Sinatra was cool in his day, Elvis was cool
in his, the Beatles were cool in theirs, and teenagers today are still
very much concerned with being cool.
I have a few questions on which I hope the erudite participants in AEU
might share their thoughts and knowledge:
1. What is the history of the word “cool” (in the slang sense it has
been used in recent generations)?
2 How would you define this term, “cool”? What are the
characteristics of a “cool person”?
3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. Do
you know any slang synonyms for “cool” that are not included in the
list below:
awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight, neato,
tubular, slammin', keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
4. How about opposites/antonyms for “cool”? (The only one that comes
to mind at the moment is “square” from the 60s)
5. Who were/are the people who have helped define the word “cool” in
their medium for their generation? (We’ve already mentioned Sinatra,
Elvis, & the Beatles; but what about film? James Bond? Clint Eastwood?
How about cool women?)
Additionally, I note that the word “cool” -- not in the sense we are
speaking of here -- occurs in Shakespeare in 34 times, according to
this source:
In Othello, we find Iago saying, “If the balance of our lives had not
one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and
baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous
conclusions: but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal
stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that you call love to
be a sect or scion.”
So Shakespeare uses the word “cool” to speak of achieving a state of
mind in which one has greater control of ones emotions. Isn’t this at
least *part* of the contemporary slang usage? If the think of the
Clint Eastwood characters in the spaghetti westerns, isn’t his
defining characteristic that he is completely stoic and self-possessed
in the face of danger?
One additional thought: "cool" seems to have a significant association
with jazz and rock 'n' roll. There are very few people left from the
pre-jazz era, and increasingly few people left from the pre-rock 'n'
roll era. (Elvis would be in his late 70s if he were alive today.)
Since these two music styles are widely enjoyed all over the world, I
suspect "cool" is also very widely understood among non-English
speakers.
Well, in any case, please don’t feel obliged to answer all or even any
of the questions above. Anything you might care to contribute about
the use of the word “cool” is most appreciated....
--
Brett (in Berkeley, California, USA)
http://www.ForeverFunds.org/
My plan for erasing poverty from the world with micro-endowments that
“give” forever into the future
Harrison Hill
> I hope you are all in good spirits.
<snip>
> 2 How would you define this term, “cool”? What are the
> characteristics of a “cool person”?
Nonchalence is the only requirement for coolness. Being handsome would
ice the cake, and a "cool" woman if she is good looking as well, is
already "hot".
> 3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. Do
> you know any slang synonyms for “cool” that are not included in the
> list below:
>
> awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
> groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight, neato,
> tubular, slammin', keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
> help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
"gen kiddy" in the sixties in London. I have no idea what "gen" meant.
> 4. How about opposites/antonyms for “cool”? (The only one that comes
> to mind at the moment is “square” from the 60s)
"naff"
> 5. Who were/are the people who have helped define the word “cool” in
> their medium for their generation? (We’ve already mentioned Sinatra,
> Elvis, & the Beatles; but what about film? James Bond? Clint Eastwood?
> How about cool women?)
Since we have YouTube at our disposal, perhaps the "coolest" people in
modern history could compete in your thread for the ultimate title?
In any poll of "The Hundred Most Popular" sort, the same people tend
pop up in the "The Hundred Most Unpopular" as well. I rather doubt
that would happen with "coolness" - I thiink we all like the same
thing.
"Pulp Fiction" and "Goodfellas" the movies are extrememly "cool"
because they are also very "stylish".
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>I hope you are all in good spirits.
>
>I think the word “cool” is one of the sturdiest slang words in the
>English language. Frank Sinatra was cool in his day, Elvis was cool
>in his, the Beatles were cool in theirs, and teenagers today are still
>very much concerned with being cool.
>
>I have a few questions on which I hope the erudite participants in AEU
>might share their thoughts and knowledge:
>
>1. What is the history of the word “cool” (in the slang sense it has
>been used in recent generations)?
According to our no-longer resident expert, it changed significantly with a TV
show called "Happy Days".
>2 How would you define this term, “cool”? What are the
>characteristics of a “cool person”?
Before Happy Days, laid back, not excited, counter-cultural, not trendy, not a
sucker for advertising.
After Happy Days, sucker for advertising, consumer, consuming all the stuff
that advertisers wants them to, trendy, seeker of status symbols.
>3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. Do
>you know any slang synonyms for “cool” that are not included in the
>list below:
>
>awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
>groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight, neato,
>tubular, slammin', keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
>help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
>
>4. How about opposites/antonyms for “cool”? (The only one that comes
>to mind at the moment is “square” from the 60s)
Right, in accordance with the 1950s meaning of cool.
>
>5. Who were/are the people who have helped define the word “cool” in
>their medium for their generation? (We’ve already mentioned Sinatra,
>Elvis, & the Beatles; but what about film? James Bond? Clint Eastwood?
>How about cool women?)
Jazz Musicians.
Beat Generation writers.
For me, Frank Sinatra exemplifies the opposite of cool.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://methodius.blogspot.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Don Phillipson
news:61ec62a7-099e-40bc...@e25g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> 1. What is the history of the word “cool” (in the slang sense it has
> been used in recent generations)?
I suggest this came from jazz music approx. 1950
when there were three schools, tendencies or preferred styles:
-- hot jazz = traditional = Dixieland;
-- modern jazz = highly cerebral, partly influenced by
contemporary classical composition, e.g. Charlie
Parker, MJQ;
-- cool jazz = bebop (then competing with modern jazz
for serious audiences.)
(Swing was by 1950 passé, except for singers: cocktail
lounge pianists could play anything they liked because
no one went there to listen to the music.)
> 2 How would you define this term, “cool”? What are the
> characteristics of a “cool person”?
"Cool" meaning both sophisticated and relaxed was later
overtaken by "hip," as documented in Norman Mailer's
essay "The White Negro" approx. 1960. But this was
independent of and separate from teen-speak of the 1970s.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Harrison Hill
>
> "Cool" meaning both sophisticated and relaxed was later
> overtaken by "hip," as documented in Norman Mailer's
> essay "The White Negro" approx. 1960. But this was
> independent of and separate from teen-speak of the 1970s.
Anybody can be cool. Everybody does something that is "cool". Falling
over stupidly but getting up funnily makes it "cool". Being "uncool"
is an essential pre-requisite because "lounge lizards" like Sinatra
aren't properly "cool". It is the little child in your family, or your
half-grown-up fifteen year old, doing something exquisite, that truly
encapsulates it.
"Hip" has gone, but as the OP has pointed out, "cool" remains.
Frank ess
"Berkeley Brett" <roya...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:61ec62a7-099e-40bc...@e25g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> 3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. Do
> you know any slang synonyms for “cool” that are not included in the
> list below:
>
> awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
> groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight, neato,
> tubular, slammin', keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
> help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
>
"sweet", to my extreme discomfort.
--
Frank ess
Frank ess
"Don Phillipson" <e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:ip4bfb$16c$3...@speranza.aioe.org...
This somewhat under-appreciated artist did some serious riffs on "cool",
among other things:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inlhnKP2i0c
Frank Sheffield
San Diego CA USA
R H Draney
>
>On Apr 25, 2:26=A0pm, Berkeley Brett <royal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. =A0Do
>> you know any slang synonyms for =93cool=94 that are not included in the
>> list below:
>>
>> awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
>> groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight, neato,
>> tubular, slammin', keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
>> help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
>
>"gen kiddy" in the sixties in London. I have no idea what "gen" meant.
"Zorch", US, mid-1950s....r
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
Leslie Danks
> On Apr 25, 2:26 pm, Berkeley Brett <royal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I hope you are all in good spirits.
>
> <snip>
>
>> 2 How would you define this term, “cool”? What are the
>> characteristics of a “cool person”?
>
> Nonchalence is the only requirement for coolness. Being handsome would
> ice the cake, and a "cool" woman if she is good looking as well, is
> already "hot".
>
>> 3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. Do
>> you know any slang synonyms for “cool” that are not included in the
>> list below:
>>
>> awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
>> groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight, neato,
>> tubular, slammin', keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
>> help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
>
> "gen kiddy" in the sixties in London. I have no idea what "gen" meant.
Short for "genuine", perhaps. A bit early for "genetically engineered".
[...]
--
Les
(BrE)
Jerry Friedman
> "Berkeley Brett" <royal...@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:61ec62a7-099e-40bc...@e25g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> > 3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. Do
> > you know any slang synonyms for “cool” that are not included in the
> > list below:
>
> > awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
> > groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight,
far out
> > neato, tubular, slammin',
rockin'
> > keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
> > help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
>
> "sweet", to my extreme discomfort.
As long as we're bringing this up to the present:
sick, dirty (or durty), gross, the shit
Also from various eras:
killer, murder, kick-ass, boss, slick, sly, def, wizard, (top) ace,
tits, tight
--
Jerry Friedman
Jerry Friedman
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 06:26:36 -0700 (PDT), Berkeley Brett <royal...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
...
> >I have a few questions on which I hope the erudite participants in AEU
> >might share their thoughts and knowledge:
>
> >1. What is the history of the word “cool” (in the slang sense it has
> >been used in recent generations)?
>
> According to our no-longer resident expert, it changed significantly with a TV
> show called "Happy Days".
>
> >2 How would you define this term, “cool”? What are the
> >characteristics of a “cool person”?
>
> Before Happy Days, laid back, not excited, counter-cultural, not trendy,
I'm sure I recall a period before Happy Days when counter-cultural was
trendy.
> not a sucker for advertising.
>
> After Happy Days, sucker for advertising, consumer, consuming all the stuff
> that advertisers wants them to, trendy, seeker of status symbols.
...
I remember the Fontana theory a bit differently.
Fifties and sixties: approval, maybe just of hip things
Late sixties till Happy Days: ironic disapproval, e.g., describing
people who think they're cool
After Happy Days: approval again
There was probably some truth to it. At least where I was, there
seemed to be a period around the right time when "cool" was especially
likely to be ironic and disapproving.
--
Jerry Friedman
Mike Lyle
wrote:
There was "dead gen" for "really good" even in the fifties. I sort of
assumed it came from servicemen's "gen" = "information", but never
worked out how.
>
>"Zorch", US, mid-1950s....r
--
Mike.
Mike Lyle
Perhaps "genuine" was involved?
--
Mike.
Steve Hayes
Never having seen "Happy Days", I was just saying what I remembered of the
Fontana theory, so you're probably right.
All I know is that sometime during the 1970s it started to become a term of
general approval.
Perhaps the trend follows Levis.
In the 1950s Levis were cool because they were working clothes, not stylish,
but practical and could take a lot of hard wear. Dquares didn't wear Levis,
they wore suits.
Now they are "cool" because they are NOT working clothes, but fashionable and
stylish and a "brand", and it's "cool" to be square.
Peter Brooks
about 1974.
Reinhold {Rey} Aman
>
> Anybody can be cool.
>
Wrong. Here are four antitheses of "cool":
-- Bertel Lund Hansen (an unfunny, annoying busybody)
-- Steve Hayes (*the* village idiot par excellence)
-- Stefan Ram (a socially inept fuckin' weirdo)
-- Garrett Wollman (an incredibly boooring nerd).
These pathetic guys are, and always will be, totally *uncool*. Of
course, they can't help it, thus I'm not making fun of their lacking
coolicity but merely state a fact.
No doubt you will ask, "What about Eric Walker? Is that finger-wagging
martinet cool?"
You bet. Cordial and wordy Walker uses -- with a straight face! -- the
really cool adjective _hebephrenic_. Man, if that ain't being cool, I
don't know what is.
--
~~~ Reinhold {Rey} Aman ~~~
Harrison Hill
I agree - Eric is "brill". We too had "dead gen" for "really good"
and certainly it came from "gen" = "information" - how does that work
again? In-gen-uity?
But you have to be uncool in order to become cool. Who would ever have
thought the Royal Family would become cool, but they have!
John Travolta was cool for a week or two after "Grease", then he aged
and put on weight, his career floundered (yes Eric, "floundered"), and
he was finished so we laughed at him! How spectacularly cool to come
back as a completely different character, cooler than ever! He is my
initial nomination:
Harrison Hill
...and Travolta is cool away from the cameras. While Sinatra played
out his private life as snivelling Johnny Fontane in "The Godfather",
making the "horse's head" and "an offer he cannot refuse" infamous,
John Travolta seems to be a nice guy who would have been happy without
fame:
If anyone can come up with a cooler lifestyle than that, then bring it
on!
Mike Lyle
Harrison Hill
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:56:26 +0100, Mike Lyle
>
>
>
>
>
> <mike_lyle...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 23:53:36 +0100, Mike Lyle
>
> >>On 25 Apr 2011 13:10:12 -0700, R H Draney <dadoc...@spamcop.net>
> >>wrote:
>
> >>>Harrison Hill filted:
>
> >>>>On Apr 25, 2:26=A0pm, Berkeley Brett <royal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>>>> 3. Cool seems to co-exist with many shorter-lived slang synonyms. =A0Do
> >>>>> you know any slang synonyms for =93cool=94 that are not included in the
> >>>>> list below:
>
> >>>>> awesome, radical, nifty, bitchin', bad, wicked, righteous, neat,
> >>>>> groovy, kewl (pronounced, "kyool"), bad-ass, outta sight, neato,
> >>>>> tubular, slammin', keen, rad, hip, sharp, spiffy, swell, (also, any
> >>>>> help in dating these bits of slang would be helpful)
>
> >>>>"gen kiddy" in the sixties in London. I have no idea what "gen" meant.
>
> >>There was "dead gen" for "really good" even in the fifties. I sort of
> >>assumed it came from servicemen's "gen" = "information", but never
> >>worked out how.
>
> >Perhaps "genuine" was involved?
>
> "Genned up".
We used to use that phrase all the time - 20 times a day - but I don't
think my internal mind has said it once in 30 years. When I think it
now, the visual part of my memory brings up no images whatsoever, and
maybe that is why I have forgotten it completely. Anyway, as an
earlier poster said it is military in origin:
"It pays to 'gen up' on the origins of words and if you do you
discover that 'gen up' comes to us courtesy of the RAF. Originally a
shortened version of 'general information', 'gen' soon came to mean
the important or key information about something."
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/Organisation/KeyFactsAboutDefence/DidYouKnow.htm
Finally I am all genned up on that one.
Harrison Hill
One word that has not been suggested AFAIAA is one that is very much
in vogue at the moment, and has been for a year or two, amongst the
bruvs and bloods of all nationalities of this part of the world. It is
a single word of 4 letters which resonates with alternative meanings,
and when uttered means: "Totally cool!" or "I'm cool with that!"
Most days I walk past the grave of one of the coolest people ever -
another person cool enough to have his own plane parked next to his
own house so he could fly in to work in the morning. His job was one
of the most dangerous imaginable, and it killed him at a young age. He
remains a household name.
On his gravestone, where you might have a trite phrase such as,
"Welcomed into the Bosom of the Lord", or suchlike banality, this man
has (very appropriately) this same four-letter word summing up his
life and his passing.
The word is...?
John Holmes
"Don Phillipson" <e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:ip4bfb$16c$3...@speranza.aioe.org...
> news:61ec62a7-099e-40bc...@e25g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
>> 1. What is the history of the word "cool" (in the slang sense it has
>> been used in recent generations)?
>
> I suggest this came from jazz music approx. 1950
> when there were three schools, tendencies or preferred styles:
> -- hot jazz = traditional = Dixieland;
> -- modern jazz = highly cerebral, partly influenced by
> contemporary classical composition, e.g. Charlie
> Parker, MJQ;
> -- cool jazz = bebop (then competing with modern jazz
> for serious audiences.)
> (Swing was by 1950 passé, except for singers: cocktail
> lounge pianists could play anything they liked because
> no one went there to listen to the music.)
A bit earlier than 1950, I'd say. Count Basie recorded "Stay Cool" in
1946, and there were probably a few others before that.
--
Regards
John
for mail: my initials plus a u e
at tpg dot com dot au
Richard Fontana
Steve Hayes sez:
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:07:59 -0700 (PDT), Jerry Friedman
><jerry_f...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>On Apr 25, 11:04?am, Steve Hayes <hayes...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>
>>> After Happy Days, sucker for advertising, consumer, consuming all the stuff
>>> that advertisers wants them to, trendy, seeker of status symbols.
>>...
>>
>>I remember the Fontana theory a bit differently.
>>
>>Fifties and sixties: approval, maybe just of hip things
>>
>>Late sixties till Happy Days: ironic disapproval, e.g., describing
>>people who think they're cool
Sorry to be getting to this a few months late. I don't think this was ever
quite what my theory was. Rather:
1950s: "cool" becomes mainstream youth slang indicative of approval
1960s: "cool" gradually dies out, becoming associated by rising young
generation with slightly older age group/subculture. By 1970, the
transformation is so complete that "cool" has come to be seen as a token
of a vanished world, or something like that.
Mid to late 1970s: Remarkable boom of popularity of sitcom _Happy Days_,
and particularly the cult of Fonzie among the *really* young. One of the
features of _Happy Days_ was the use of "cool" (particularly in
connection with the Fonz) as an outmoded term. "Cool" had something of
the quality of "swell", though perhaps not quite as dramatically
old-fashioned as the latter. (You may recall a scene in the film
_Superman_ (1978), which was more or less set in the present-day, where
Clark Kent says "That's swell" and Lois Lane finds this use of archaic
slang quite odd.)
Early 1980s: Revised use of "cool" by youth, which I presume is due to the
influence of _Happy Days_ in the 1970s and particularly the cult of
Fonzie.
By 1994 or so, "cool" comes to be quite overused, and by multiple
age groups. I'm not quite sure what the status is today though.
--
Richard Fontana
Steve Hayes
wrote:
><tap tap> Is this thing on?
Welcome back!
By 1994 or so it has been replaced by "awesome".
Yes, I remember when "cool dood" (or "c00l d00d") was used ironically to refer
to people who thought they were cool, but weren't.
R H Draney
>>age groups. I'm not quite sure what the status is today though.
>
>By 1994 or so it has been replaced by "awesome".
Except where it hasn't...Beavis was forever commenting on Butt-head's ideas for
mayhem by observing "yeah, that'd be cool!"...the original series ran from
1993-97....r
John Varela
wrote:
> <tap tap> Is this thing on?
Welcome back, Sal. Are you here to stay for a while? Liebs just
returned and we were lamenting the loss of so many old RRs.
--
John Varela
Athel Cornish-Bowden
> [ ... ]
> By 1994 or so, "cool" comes to be quite overused, and by multiple
> age groups. I'm not quite sure what the status is today though.
When I first started surfing the net, around 1996, Netscape Navigator
had a button labelled "What's cool" that I refused to press, as I
didn't see how it could possibly know what I was going to like. I may
have been wrong, of course, as Amazon's software isn't hopelessly bad
at guessing what books I might want to read, but I don't know whether
Netscape Navigator was as sophisticated as that. I think it was just
labelling "cool" anything that some geek in California thought was cool.
--
athel