[Ads-l] Antedating of "Too Cool for School"

[Shapiro, Fred]

The OED's earliest unbracketed citaton for the expression "too cool for school" is dated 1985.  There is a long history of literal uses of "too cool for school," referring to actual schools in contexts such as excessive air-conditioning.  The 1951 citation below might well be regarded as literal.  Note that all the literal citations could be plays on unknown older figurative uses.

1951 Scranton Times 18 Sept. 5/4 (Newspapers.com)  Lionel Hampton turned down a chance to lecture at a West Coast universiy on the lexicon of jazz.  He told the profs he couldn't figure out how to define the language of the hipsters without empoying other unintelligible terms.  (If you're hip, you're just too cool for school !)

1980 Billboard 24 May 92/2 (ProQuest)  "Lifeguard Dan" is another summer classic, a Beach Boys' knock-off that's almost too cool for school.

Fred Shapiro


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