"ivy" = "cool"; "Ivy John" nickname

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Dear members of ads-l and ans-l:

I don't find "ivy" = "cool" in the dictionaries of slang I've checked, but this usage existed in some very limited degree in the speech of a Dartmouth student, class of 1962. The Sept./Oct. issue of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (vol. 98, no. 1), p. 108, contains an obituary of a 1962 graduate:

"John Jacob Roth of Centerport, New York, died on December 2, 2004.  John came to Dartmouth from Bethpage, New York, and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta. ...Classmate John Walters writes:

"I was really saddened to learn this news.  John and I both grew up on Long Island and one of my good buddies moved to Bethpage during high school and became friends and graduated with John.  Through this contact John and I quickly connected in Hanover and we spent a lot of time together as undergraduates.  He was affectionately known as 'Ivy John' by his Phi Gam brothers and many other '62's.  (When referring to something interesting, 'cool' or different, John loved to say, 'Hey, that's really ivy'; needless to say the nickname stuck.)."

Gerald Cohen