Early Citations for "Cool"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Oct 1, 2005, at 7:02 AM, sagehen wrote:

>  arnold writes:
>
>
>> .............What makes it so cool/etc. is (that) he's going to
>> look just
>> like me.
>>
>> or to a clearly paratactic "set-up + pay-off" construction, in which
>> you announce that you're going to supply some information and then
>> supply it:..........
>>
> ~~~~~~~~~
> Joseph Henry Jackson, longtime book reviewer (for... the
> SFChronicle...) used this type of construction so much that it
> became a parodiable trait.
> "What makes this book so remarkable is the splendid quality of the
> writing" reappeared in various guises over and over  in his reviews.

this is the first of the construction types mentioned above: the
ordinary english pseudocleft (but with an NP, rather than clausal,
pay-off).  it can certainly become obtrusive if overused.

arnold