Query: Slang "Cool!" in 1868?

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 4:35 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 4:18 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 4:00 PM, David A. Daniel wrote:
> > >
> > > I read your cool "On Language" article. Cool. But if the Times kerfuffle
> > > broke out over anachronistic use of cool (modern sense, old timeframe)
> > > then I'd say you could have created one of your own by saying "white
> > > teeny-boppers circa 1952." To my knowledge there were no teeny-boppers,
> > > labeled as such, until the mid-60's. No?
> >
> > Touché. Some sort of variation of Muphry's Law at work there.
>
> And there, too.

In case that was less than clear:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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