Early Citations for "Cool"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 16:55:29 -0400, Fred Shapiro wrote:

>The BBC WordHunt program has asked me about early citations for the
>jazz-related slang sense of "cool," specifically they want to know about
>pre-1948 citations plus any U.S. newspaper citations of the term before
>1960.  Can anyone supply any such citations beyond what is listed in
>HDAS?

1960 seems like a pretty late cutoff date for newspaper cites. There are
many from the late '40s and early '50s that have come up here and on
alt.usage.english. The breakout year was 1948 -- see OED cites from _Life_
and the _New Yorker_, and also this article found on N-Archive by Richard
Fontana of alt.usage.english:

-----
Bridgeport (Conn.) Telegram, July 13, 1948
"Hot jazz is dead. Long live COOL jazz!"
That is the startling statement attributed to Leonard Feather,
self-styled jazz expert, in a publicity release ...
"Hot jazz, as such, may be on the way out," says Feather, "but it is
gradually being replaced by something that can just as well be described
as "cool jazz." This phrase is simply a way of describing the younger
musicians' new approach to jazz improvisation.
"The old-school jazz created a tension, where the new jazz tries to
convey a feeling of rhythmic relaxation. Jazz today tends to be played a
fraction behind the beat, rather than right on the beat or even ahead of
it."
The term "cool", he points out, is used by many musicians as a synonym
for everything good. As examples of "cool" musicians, he cites pianists
Dodo Marmarosa, Errol Garner; tenor saxmen Lester Young, Lucky Thompson,
Wardell Gray, Allen Eager and Dexter Gordon; alto saxist Charlie Parker,
trombonist J. J. Johnson and guitarist Barney Kessel.
-----

"Cool" hit the mainstream c. 1952, when white teenagers across the country
started using the word. See Doug Wilson's post on a June 23, 1952 article
about teen slang in the (St. Joseph MI) _Herald-Press_, and also my
followup on the 1952 movie "A Young Man's Fancy" (with a slang-slinging
teenybopper calling her crush "really cool" and "a real cool Jonah"):

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0410D&L=ADS-L&P=R355

That same year, "cool" was recognizable enough as teen slang to be
included in numerous comic strips on N-Archive:

     Muggs and Skeeter, May 5, 1952
     "Gee, I like your pipe, Gramps!  It's real George and
      ricky-ticky!"
     "It's real what... and what?"
     "Real George and ricky-ticky!!! That means it's cool...
      real cool!! You know, hot stuff!"

     Our Boarding House with Major Hoople, July 31, 1952
     "As the younger generation would say, Major, that's real cool!"

     Honeybelle, December 13, 1952
     "Senorita, get hep, and you'll be mine in starlight time!"
     "Cool!  Real cool!"


--Ben Zimmer