Query: Slang "Cool!" in 1868?

Wed Nov 23 00:18:53 UTC 2011

In 1960, the late-great singer-songwiter, Oscar Brown, Jr., wrote and sang:

I've always followed
This golden rule:
"Whatever happens,
DON'T blow your cool!"

The title of this song is, _But, I Was Cool!_ Interested readers can
find it on YouTube.

Ca. 1965, during my brief "adventures in the skin-game," so to speak,
I wondered aloud how it was that a certain 'ho', rail-thin and almost
totally devoid of back, was able to do any business in competition
with chicks who were much finer. My interlocutor replied,

"She has a _cold_ personality."

Within the context of the conversation, it was clear that I was
intended to understand "cold" as meaning, "extraordinarily,
surprisingly, beyond-words cool." And _cool_ had to be understood as
extended from the usual "good" to "nice, pleasing" or even, perhaps,
"empathic."

IME, this positive meaning of "cold" with reference to personality is
a hapax. Otherwise, I've heard it used, whether positively or
negatively, only as cited in HDAS. That is, something very stylish,
cooler than cool, is "cold" and "having a cold _personality_" would be
said only of a pimp or other sociopath.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 4:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Query: Slang "Cool!" in 1868?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Could have, but fortunately didn't.
>
> Â _Teeny-bopper_ indeed dates from the mid '60s.
>
>
> JL
>
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 4:00 PM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Query: Slang "Cool!" in 1868?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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?
>> DAD
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---
>>
>> The example from Wilkie Collins was discussed here last year, when
>> George Thompson brought our attention to a debate over "cool" in the
>> letters to the editor section of TLS. I agreed with George's point
>> that the Collins usage (like the 1860 Abraham Lincoln usage that also
>> came up in the TLS discussion) fits the "audaciously impudent" meaning
>> of the time and is a red herring when considering the more modern
>> "cool." See my On Language column for more:
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/magazine/30FOB-onlanguage-t.html
>>
>> --bgz
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 2:09 PM, Baker, John wrote:
>>>
>>> Â  Â  Â  Â I have not read The Moonstone, but I take Mr. Bruff's comment to
>> imply
>>> that the narrator's plan embodies the calm temperament and discretion
>> that,
>>> I infer from the passage, he has not previously displayed. Â The effect, in
>> other
>>> words, is much as if Mr. Bruff had said "Audacious!" (although I sense he
>>> seeks calmness rather than audacity).
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
>> Of Cohen, Gerald Leonard
>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 12:23 PM
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>> Subject: Query: Slang "Cool!" in 1868?
>>>
>>> Dear ads-l members,
>>>
>>> I've received a query from Lewis Porter (Rutgers U. Professor of Music)
>> concerning slang
>>> "cool." He found what seems to be an example of this from 1868 and is
>> wondering
>>> about its validity. Â Barry Popik and George Thompson have already provided
>> some
>>> input to him, and I suggested he should write to ads-l as a whole. Â At his
>>> request I now forward his query to you. Â Jonathan, Jesse, would you have
>> any
>>> thoughts on this?
>>>
>>> Here is the message he sent me (in the quoted 1868 passage "Cool" comes
>>> in the next-to-last paragraph).
>>>
>>>
>>> > Hello Gerald,
>>> > I trust you're well. George Thompson sent me some resources on this
>>> > but I thought I'd run it past you as well. Now I've been looking into
>>> > the word "cool." Prior to ca.1940, when it
>>> > started to mean "Good" or "I agree!" in black jazz parlance, it had
>>> > among its meanings "unflappable, calm in the face of danger," etc. BUT
>>> > what do you make of the passage from The Moonstone (1868, Britain)
>>> > pasted below? It certainly seems that in this case, contrary to what
>>> > one would expect in this time and place, the word "cool" here means
>>> > "Good!"
>>> >
>>> > I realize that it is more sensible to try and understand this in light
>>> > of the current uses of "cool" in play in 1868, rather than as an
>>> > isolated instance of a meaning not found elsewhere until 75 years
>>> > later. I guess it would make more sense to try and interpret it as
>>> > meaning "unflappable," etc. But I just couldn't see how the
>>> > "unflappable" use applied here--specifically because the black use of
>>> > it is often given as a one word exclamatory sentence--"Cool!"--whereas
>>> > I know of no other instance of the "unflappable" meaning used as an
>>> > exclamation--in fact it's quite odd to exclaim "Audacious!" when what
>>> > is meant is "That would be quite audacious of you if you were to
>>> > coolly do that"!!
>>> >
>>> > What do you think?
>>> > All the best,
>>> > Lewis
>>> >
>>> > Lewis Porter, Ph.D.
>>> > Professor of Music/Jazz Pianist
>>> > Director of the M.A. Program in Jazz History and Research
>>> > Rutgers University
>>> > Newark, NJ
>>> > Lewisporter.com
>>> > P.S.
>>> > Here is the passage from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868; p342
>>> > in my copy of the "revised"-really just fixed typos etc-1871 edition):
>>> >
>>> > "This is how it stands," he said. "I tell you fairly, I don't trust your
>>> > discretion, and I don't trust your temper. But I do trust in Rachel's
>>> > still preserving, in some remote little corner of her heart, a certain
>>> > perverse weakness for YOU. Touch that--and trust to the consequences for
>>> > the fullest disclosures that can flow from a woman's lips! The question
>>> > is--how are you to see her?"
>>> >
>>> > "She has been a guest of yours at this house," I answered. "May I
>>> > venture to suggest--if nothing was said about me beforehand--that I
>>> > might see her here?"
>>> >
>>> > "Cool!" said Mr. Bruff. With that one word of comment on the reply that
>>> > I had made to him, he took another turn up and down the room.
>>> >
>>> > "In plain English," he said, "my house is to be turned into a trap to
>>> > catch Rachel; with a bait to tempt her, in the shape of an invitation
>>> > from my wife and daughters. If you were anybody else but Franklin Blake,
>>> > and if this matter was one atom less serious than it really is, I should
>>> > refuse point-blank. As things are, I firmly believe Rachel will live
>>> > to thank me for turning traitor to her in my old age. Consider me your
>>> > accomplice. Rachel shall be asked to spend the day here; and you shall
>>> > receive due notice of it."
>>> >
>>> > END
>>>
>>> > My occasional blog of my new jazz research:
>>> > https://www.wbgo.org/blog/category/20877
>>> >
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> --
>> Ben Zimmer
>> http://benzimmer.com/
>>
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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