[Ads-l] Major Antedating of "Cool" (General Term of Approval)

[Ben Zimmer]

Interesting find, Fred. Full article clipped here:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-union-dats-cool/197890616/

Based on the context, I wouldn't necessarily read this "cool" as a "general
term of approval." The speaker is responding to a situation he finds
outrageous. His wife began living with another man ("Black Jack the Sweep")
while he was off at war, and then he was brought into court for abandoning
his wife. It seems to fit better in the tradition of "cool" used to
describe audacious or impudent behavior, as in OED sense 2d.

Compare also Abraham Lincoln's "That is cool" in his Feb. 27, 1860 Cooper
Union address, responding to the audacity of secessionist demands. There's
also the 1884 "dat's cool" from J.A. Harrison's "Negro English" article,
which I discussed here:

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2008-February/078756.html

That example is currently bracketed under OED's sense 8a, with the note
that "the exact meaning of _cool_, from an article containing a list of
undefined interjections (not all expressing approval) is uncertain; it
could be a comment on a person's audacity (i.e. sense A.2d)." I would be
similarly hesitant to ascribe the modern sense of "cool" to the 1866 cite.

More on "cool" (including discussion of the 1860 and 1884 cites) in my 2010
"On Language" column:

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/magazine/30FOB-onlanguage-t.html?unlocked_article_code=1.j1A.UlGj.YLkikt3nJnh5&smid=url-share

--bgz

On Tue, May 19, 2026 at 9:54 PM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> cool (OED, 8.b..1933)
>
> 1866 Union (Brooklyn, New York) 6 Dec. 1/1 (Newspapers.com)  At the
> breaking out of the war a colored man named Benjamin Tines was the happy
> husband of a white wife ... Yesterday, however, poor Benjamin's seclusion
> was ruthlessly interrupted by the appearance of Officer Bell ... who, armed
> with a warrant, arrested him on a charge of abandoning his lawful wife
> Margaret and refusing to give her support.  On this charge he was arraigned
> before Justice Walter, but no complainant appearing, he was discharged.  On
> leaving the Court-room Benjamin gave expression to his pent-up feelings in
> this wise: "Well, dat's cool; de woman dat married Black Jack the Sweep
> can't hab my money, no how; no sah!"
>

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