[Ads-l] Slight Antedating of "Cool" (African American / Jazz Sense)

[Ben Zimmer]

Looking through other contemporary examples from the Pittsburgh Courier,
I'm more convinced that the use of "coolest" in Fred's cite is just
referring to the temperature inside the venue. Consider:

---
Pittsburgh Courier, July 26, 1930, p. 7, col. 1
"Jule Soliloquizes: The Heat, Cabarets, 'Hen' Kennedy, The Frogs, What Good
Are We, Orchard View"
It was hot, no foolin'. [...] About the coolest spot in town Monday was
Dearing's Rendezvous.
---
Pittsburgh Courier, July 1, 1933, p. 7, col. 6
"Carrigan at Temple, 4th"
[H]is only other appearance being the evenin' to dawnin' dance the night of
July 3d at the coolest outdoor spot in western Pennsylvania, Mapleview
Park. [...] There will be plenty of cool stuff ... you know what we mean
... to quench your thirst.
---
Pittsburgh Courier, June 9, 1934, p. II8, col. 6
"Modern Cooling System To Give the Savoy An Alaskan Atmosphere: Polar-Like
Breezes to Make Pittsburgh's Most Beautiful Ballroom the 'Coolest Spot In
Town'"
"The coolest spot in town" will be the beautiful Savoy Ballroom [...] when
the installation of the new cooling system, which is already underway, is
completed.
---

--bgz

On Tue, Nov 4, 2025 at 12:24 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 4, 2025 at 8:55 AM Shapiro, Fred <
> 00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
>> cool (OED, 8.b., 1933 [August])
>>
>> 1933 Pittsburgh Courier 1 July 9 (ProQuest)
>>
>> The Northside Elks ball is rated the coolest in the city.
>
>
> Fascinating find, Fred. I took a look at the article on ProQuest, and I
> believe the quote is actually "The Northside Elks hall is rated the coolest
> in the city" ("hall," not "ball"). This is referring to the Northside Lodge
> of Elks No. 124, a venue that was used for social gatherings -- the article
> mentions plans for an all-night party on July 3rd and a holiday dance on
> July 4th.
>
> So what does it mean for this venue to be "rated the coolest in the city"?
> It's hard to say without any additional context. I'd note that OED3
> currently distinguishes these two senses:
>
> 8a: attractively shrewd or clever; sophisticated, stylish, classy;
> fashionable, up to date; sexually attractive (from 1918)
> 8b: (as a general term of approval) admirable, excellent (from 1933)
>
> It's possible the Northside Elks hall is being described as stylish or
> classy (8a), although the OED's examples for that sense are more about
> people than places. If it's indeed an example of 8b, I'd find it more
> compelling than what the OED currently has as the earliest cite for the
> sense: "And whut make it so cool, he got money 'cumulated," from Zora Neale
> Hurston's story "The Gilded Six-Bits." In the past, I've questioned whether
> the examples of "what/whut make it so cool" in Hurston's writings should be
> thought of as illustrating the modern sense of "cool" as a general term of
> approbation or the older sense meaning "audacious" (OED sense 2d).
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2008-February/078756.html
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2008-September/084670.html
>
> The Pittsburgh Courier example obviously wouldn't work with an "audacious"
> reading, but I'm still unsure what kind of "coolness" they could be talking
> about. Given that the article is about social events in the summertime,
> maybe they're just referring to the temperature inside the lodge!
>
> --bgz
>
>

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