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

Wed May 20 12:03:06 UTC 2026

I concur with Ben. The "audacious" sense was commonly used in the
indignant expression "That's cool!"

I think it likely that the "approval" sense of "cool" evolved in large part
from that, in ambiguous contexts like Fred's. It's often good to be
audacious.

 JL

On Wed, May 20, 2026 at 6:29 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> My thinking was that Benjamin Tines was commenting on the court's
> favorable ruling as being "cool."  His use of "cool" was in the same
> sentence as a strong affirmation of the result of the court ruling.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben
> Zimmer <00001aae0710f4b7-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 10:22 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Major Antedating of "Cool" (General Term of Approval)
>
> Interesting find, Fred. Full article clipped here:
>
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers.com%2Farticle%2Fthe-brooklyn-union-dats-cool%2F197890616%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cda1c68124b0440927f8e08deb616c4bd%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C639148406087526959%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=mjdJQVggBZ38Q%2BiR9%2F3VYDB6DCzIytJUoNwDm2JYgkM%3D&reserved=0
> <
> 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://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flistserv.linguistlist.org%2Fpipermail%2Fads-l%2F2008-February%2F078756.html&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cda1c68124b0440927f8e08deb616c4bd%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C639148406087554603%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=v%2F8SqozQV9TAg4nhCQtBLjqpBqjrj4EElzz8Aa2dUEs%3D&reserved=0
> <
> 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://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2010%2F05%2F30%2Fmagazine%2F30FOB-onlanguage-t.html%3Funlocked_article_code%3D1.j1A.UlGj.YLkikt3nJnh5%26smid%3Durl-share&data=05%7C02%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cda1c68124b0440927f8e08deb616c4bd%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C639148406087571011%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=giHBxpdp%2F246k%2FiJgMUHuBw7o5rUfGnToPBWY2auJgM%3D&reserved=0
> <
> 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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