Author Topic: Question; what is "cool" ? (Read 798 times)

ironglow · « **on:** April 29, 2012, 01:51:22 PM »

Now, I'm the type person who likes to analyze words or at least get a grasp of their meaning. For years now, i have heard youngsters use the word "cool" and I simply attributed it to childish swagger & gibberish..all in all a rather nebulous term.
Recently, the media has begun referring to the president as "cool"..so it apparently has some kind of esoteric but still tangible etymology, however as of yet I haven't deciphered it's solid, tangible meaning.
I eliminated such things as "accomlpished in"..engineering, medicine, science, astrophysics, or even the humanities. No real science or cerebral exercises seem to fit. Best I could figure by observation is.. if an adult dallies in frivilous things and generally acts childish.. then he/she is "cool"..

If it means anything else..let me know; but please explain in concrete terms...

JoeG52 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 29, 2012, 02:04:32 PM »

cool
		The best way to say something is neat-o, awesome, or swell. The phrase "cool" is very relaxed, never goes out of style, and people will never laugh at you for using it, very conveniant for people like me who don't care about what's "in."

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cool

ironglow · « **Reply #2 on:** April 29, 2012, 02:12:42 PM »

Thanks Joe...but I asked for something concrete. I am a rather serious person when it comes to word usage. I would likely even appear as being droll to some, but words mean things. Unless I can get a better, more solid explanation..I will simply have to consider the prez and the media who assert the term as being frivilous and childish. Frankly, adjectives such as "neato", "awesome' and "swell".. only emphasize it's juvenile derivations !
..Again somebody, something concrete please..

Cuts Crooked · « **Reply #3 on:** April 29, 2012, 02:27:44 PM »

From Wikipedia:

Quote

Something regarded as cool is an admired aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance and style, influenced by and a product of the Zeitgeist. Because of the varied and changing connotations of cool, as well its subjective nature, the word has no single meaning. It has associations of composure and self-control (cf. the OED definition) and often is used as an expression of admiration or approval. Although commonly regarded as slang, it is widely used among disparate social groups, and has endured in usage for generations.

And I'm afraid that's about as "concrete" as yer gonna find........Cool huh?

powderman · « **Reply #4 on:** April 29, 2012, 02:32:57 PM »

In the case of several folks I know COOL simply means, hey, look at me, I'm stooooopud. POWDERMAN.

nw_hunter · « **Reply #5 on:** April 29, 2012, 02:41:49 PM »

Quote from: ironglow on April 29, 2012, 01:51:22 PM

Now, I'm the type person who likes to analyze words or at least get a grasp of their meaning. For years now, i have heard youngsters use the word "cool" and I simply attributed it to childish swagger & gibberish..all in all a rather nebulous term.
Recently, the media has begun referring to the president as "cool"..so it apparently has some kind of esoteric but still tangible etymology, however as of yet I haven't deciphered it's solid, tangible meaning.
I eliminated such things as "accomlpished in"..engineering, medicine, science, astrophysics, or even the humanities. No real science or cerebral exercises seem to fit. Best I could figure by observation is.. if an adult dallies in frivilous things and generally acts childish.. then he/she is "cool"..

If it means anything else..let me know; but please explain in concrete terms...

Aside from opposite to warm, it is a word used by youth that means about anything the user want's it mean.You and I, are too old to analyse it.
I'll be 69 in June, and we used the word often back when we were Young to give a thumbs up to someone. Cool was.....A D.T. Ducktail haircut, Black leather jacket, Engineer boots..... Chuck berry and Elvis were pretty cool also.Brenda Levy, a Cheerleader at my HS was really cool!

I bet you used the word cool back in the day, and really never stopped to analyse it.

KIMBER45 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 29, 2012, 04:42:45 PM »

If your like " The Fonz " your cooooool.

powderman · « **Reply #7 on:** April 29, 2012, 04:46:34 PM »

HEH, my wife and I still say COOL. POWDERMAN.

ironglow · « **Reply #8 on:** April 30, 2012, 12:49:42 AM »

I assume I will have to accept this explanation, since it appears it is as 'concrete' as I'll ever get;
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" Aside from opposite to warm, it is a word used by youth that means about anything the user want's it mean.You and I, are too old to analyse it.
I'll be 69 in June, and we used the word often back when we were Young to give a thumbs up to someone. Cool was.....A D.T. Ducktail haircut, Black leather jacket, Engineer boots..... Chuck berry and Elvis were pretty cool also.Brenda Levy, a Cheerleader at my HS was really cool!

I bet you used the word cool back in the day, and really never stopped to analyse it."
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I have been guilty of a slip with the term "cool" when speaking with my 13 yr old grandaughter, but here again..that's with a 13 yr old and her teenage collloquialisms.
I'm just a bit older than you, NW..and I never did use that given term. However, I must confess my comparative term during my teenage years was "copacetic"..and I only had a vauge notion that it actually meant, "very satisfactory".

Since resorting to the "cool" would require a serious adult to put his maturity into a retrograde development, I am left wondering why some media sources consider a president being viewed as "cool", to be a plus factor among mature, voting age adults.

yellowtail3 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2012, 01:18:36 AM »

I've heard cool used for forty-plus years. IG is simply out of touch, four or more decades running.

ironglow · « **Reply #10 on:** April 30, 2012, 01:33:33 AM »

Quote from: yellowtail3 on April 30, 2012, 01:18:36 AM

I've heard cool used for forty-plus years. IG is simply out of touch, four or more decades running.

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True, my teenage years were more than 40 years ago, and as I explained..I had a term "copacetic" which I perhaps overused.
...But again; I was a teenager then and had some distance to go into maturity. Then however, i did grow up and left such frivolities behind..meaning the whole facade which constitutes "cool".
Naturally, I wouldn't dream of denying their fun to teenyboppers, but adults should have grown past this.
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" When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." (I Corinthians 13:11)

The prez claims to be a Christian..he should read his Bible...

kenfred · « **Reply #11 on:** April 30, 2012, 02:31:39 AM »

Question in my mind has always been who gets to decide what/who is "cool".

magooch · « **Reply #12 on:** April 30, 2012, 03:29:36 AM »

Communist Outrageous Obstinate Lout--in reference to the Obamanation.

Conan The Librarian · « **Reply #13 on:** April 30, 2012, 05:03:33 AM »

Yesterday's cool is today's old fashioned. Try walking around with a ducktail and a white t-shirt and eather jacket, smoking a Lucky Strike and driving a t-bucket. Use the slang of the late 1950s while you're at it. People would think you're a weirdo or an extra in a remake of Happy Days. But you certainly wouldn't be considered cool. Rudy Vallee, sporting a racoon fur coat, waving a phony college pennant, and singing through a megaphone used to be so cool that girls would faint at the sight of him.

Cool is what appeals to popular sentiments at a particular moment.

Some cool lasts longer than others. Frank Sinatra is still cool. Dean Martin is not.

The only reason Obama is being cast as "cool" is because that marketing strategy worked for Clinton in contrast with Dole or Bush senior. In a political context, "cool" means "not old". Romney is being cast as "old" and "old fashioned", among other things.

jhm · « **Reply #14 on:** April 30, 2012, 05:15:14 AM »

I grew up in Detroit and I saw alot of cool and obama isnt cool he is just another jaive ass hands out troublemaker. Jim

ironglow · « **Reply #15 on:** April 30, 2012, 04:04:53 PM »

Quote from: jhm on April 30, 2012, 05:15:14 AM

I grew up in Detroit and I saw alot of cool and obama isnt cool he is just another jaive ass hands out troublemaker. Jim

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Pitiful..but true...and funny

Duke0313 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 30, 2012, 11:40:44 PM »

Always thought I was cool...'til the kids let me know otherwise...

ironglow · « **Reply #17 on:** May 01, 2012, 12:31:29 AM »

Quote from: Duke0313 on April 30, 2012, 11:40:44 PM

Always thought I was cool...'til the kids let me know otherwise...

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Duke;
Don't sweat it..as parents/grandparents we are not supposed to be what is apparently "cool".. We should be more concerned with being mature and august...just as a president should be.

Duke0313 · « **Reply #18 on:** May 01, 2012, 09:23:40 PM »

Yeah, looks like my "coolness" has withered away! Oh well, even Fonzie has had to resort to pitching reverse mortgages now.

KIMBER45 · « **Reply #19 on:** May 02, 2012, 12:37:48 AM »

Quote from: Duke0313 on May 01, 2012, 09:23:40 PM

Yeah, looks like my "coolness" has withered away! Oh well, even Fonzie has had to resort to pitching reverse mortgages now.

No that's funny, I don't care who you are.

Hooker · « **Reply #20 on:** May 02, 2012, 02:25:44 PM »

Ray Wylie Hubbard explains it pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN0DtywsSW4&feature=related