[Ads-l] "Cool your jets" [Slight antedating to 1967]

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Fri Nov 2 15:43:09 UTC 2018


Great work, Bonnie. Here is an instance of the slang phrase a little
earlier. The phrase is misspelled as "cool you jets". The date is not
directly visible on the page, but it is visible by going forward one
page or backwards two pages. Checking dates is necessary because
Newspapers.com has misdated page images as discussed previously on
this mailing list. The link points to a clipping.

Date: November 2, 1966
Newspaper: The Racine Journal-Times
Newspaper Location: Racine, Wisconsin
Article: Slang Clang
Quote Page 1B, Column 2
Database: Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25044889/coolyoujets/

[Begin excerpt]
Slang Clang

Patchout (to accelerate sud-
denly).
007 (a nosy person).
Cave (collapse).
Let's split (let's go).
A hang up (a big brother).
Cool you jets (relax).
[End excerpt]

Garson
On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 9:47 AM Bonnie Taylor-Blake
<b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> In case we've not done this recently ...
>
> OED shares something from January, 1973 as its earliest example of "to cool
> one's jets," with the meaning "to calm down; to become less excited or
> agitated."
>
> Here are some sightings from the late 1960s.
>
> VOCABULARY LESSON number II: If you want someone to "cool it" you must go
> all out and say "cool your JETS." [From Esteban, "Action at A.H.S.," The
> Algona (Iowa) Upper Des Moines, 28 February 1967, p. 4. Looks like Esteban
> was writing about slang used at Algona High School.]
>
> Cool your jets -- (take it easy) [From "Slang Clang," The Racine
> (Wisconsin) Journal-Times, 2 August 1967, p. 4B.]
>
> Look to soul language for this year's additions, including such expressions
> as "Hang in there" (You know, encourage your teammates) and "Cool your
> jets" (we used to say "Shut up.") [From "Wisconsin Teens Will Stick With
> Same Fads in '69," The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), 3 February 1969,
> p. 2.]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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