col

col¹ cool

Etymology tree of col¹

inherited borrowed derived

Old English cōl

English cool

From the same root · col¹

English coolant ← cool

English cooler ← cool

English uncool ← cool

Pronunciation

• /koːl/^[1]

Forms

cōl (comparative cōlra, superlative cōlost)^[1]

Etymology

The word for cool is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kōl, from Proto-Germanic *kōlaz (“cool”).^[1][2][3] Its nearest relatives are Middle Low German kōl and Old High German kuoli.^[2][4]

Orel derives the Proto-Germanic adjective from the strong verb Proto-Germanic *kalaną (“to be cold”), the source of the Old English verb listed below and Old Norse kala (“to freeze”), which he relates to Latin gelū (“frost, cold”).^[2][5] Köbler traces the group to the root Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold, to freeze”), and Holthausen and Köbler list calan, ceald and ciele as its Old English kin.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first found in the mid-tenth-century manuscript of Bald's Leechbook, in a remedy for the head: Wyrc him leage of ellen ahsan, þreah his heafod mid colre “make him a lye of elder ashes, wash his head with the cool (lye)”.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In prose the word describes physical coolness: water from a spring, a mixture stirred until it cools, a lye used cold.^[8] In Beowulf the comparative is used of feelings, of the surges of care that colran wurðaþ “grow cooler”, and the dictionaries give the senses “calm” and “appeased” for this use.^{[9][10][11][7]} Toller's Supplement adds glosses where it renders Latin frigidus and algidus.^[12]

The adjective lived on as Middle English col, now English cool;^[13] Etymonline dates its figurative use for unexcited persons from the early fourteenth century.^[13]

Timeline

• s. x med. – mid colre “with the cool (lye)” in Bald's Leechbook.^[6][7]
• s. x/xi – þa cearwylmas colran wurðaþ “the surges of care grow cooler” in the Beowulf manuscript.^[11][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cool, cold.^[8][3]
2. (of the mind) calm, quiet, appeased.^[10][3]

Descendants

• Middle English col (→ English cool; Scots cule; Scots cuill)^[1]

col² coal

Etymology tree of col²

inherited borrowed derived

Proto-West Germanic *kol

Dutch kool

Old English cōl

Pronunciation

• /kol/^[1]

Forms

col n (strong a-stem; genitive singular coles, nominative plural colu)^[1]

Etymology

The word for coal is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (“coal, charcoal”).^[1][14] The neuter noun is shared with Old Norse kol, Old Frisian kole and Old High German kol, beside which Old High German also has kolo.^[14][15][4] Kroonen takes the neuter to be primary and the feminine forms of Frisian and Norse (with Old Norse kola (“lamp”)) to be a later coinage for a single piece of coal.^[14]

Outside Germanic the closest match is Celtic, Old Irish gúal (“coal”).^[14][4] Kroonen allows a link with the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵwelH- (“to burn”), but notes that the meaning “coal” would then be an innovation shared by Germanic and Celtic in a western European contact zone;^[14][15] Köbler gives Proto-Indo-European *gewlo- (“live coal”), after Pokorny.^[14][15] Holthausen weighs both connections without deciding.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is first recorded in the Old English gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, added in the mid-ninth century: Colu onelde sind from him over the Latin “Carbones succensi sunt ab eo”, “coals were kindled by him” (Psalm 17:9).^[16][7]

Semantic evolution

The Old English word meant a live or glowing coal and charcoal, and it glosses Latin carbo; mineral coal is not meant.^[8][15][10] The Pastoral Care speaks of the coals of the altar that cleansed the prophet, and the medical texts compare blackness to coal (swa sweart swa col).^[8][7] Toller's Supplement adds a saint's life where the fire was quenched so that not one coal glowed.^[12]

The word lived on as Middle English col, which kept the sense of charcoal and took on that of mineral coal, as in English coal.^[17][13]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – Colu onelde “kindled coals” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[16][7]
• 890×897 – ða colu ðæs alteres “the coals of the altar” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[18][7]
• s. x¹ – colu onælde in the Junius Psalter gloss.^[19][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. a coal, a live or glowing coal.^[8][15]
2. charcoal, a piece of charcoal.^[10][1]

Word family

• colmāse
• colpytt
• colsweart
• heofoncol
• sǣcol

Descendants

• Middle English col (→ English coal)^[1]