Etymologically
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cool

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kuːl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English cole, inherited from Old English cōl (“moderately cold”),[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *kōluz,[3][4] from the base of cold.[4][5][6] Its cognates include Middle Dutch coel, Dutch koel, Old High German kuoli and German kühl,[3][2][7] and Old Norse kala (“to be cold”).[3][2] Watkins traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold; to freeze”).[2][8] The verb is from Old English cōlian (“to lose warmth”).[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Moderately cold: Old English cōl, about 725, in Beowulf,[3] and also figuratively, of persons, “unperturbed, not heated by passion”.[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “showing coldness, apathy or dislike” is from the early 14th century.[2] The noun, “a cool place or time”, as in the cool of the evening, is from the 15th century.[10][5] To cool one's heels, “to wait”, is from the 1630s.[2] Since 1728 cool has been applied to large sums of money for emphasis, as in a cool million, and “calmly audacious” is from 1825.[2] Word Origins notes that black Americans used cool for “excellent, stylish” as early as the 1880s;[11] Etymonline dates the slang “fashionable” by 1933, originally African-American, and its spread as a general term of approval from the late 1940s, through jazz and especially bop.[2][12] Keep or lose one's cool, “composure”, is from 1966,[2][10] and the verb cool it and “to kill” are American slang.[10][12]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English cōl (Beowulf).[3]
  • early 14th century – unfriendly.[2]
  • 1630s – cool one's heels.[2]
  • 1728 – a cool sum.[2]
  • 1825 – calmly audacious.[2]
  • 1933 – fashionable.[2]
  • late 1940s – general approval, from jazz.[2]
  • 1966 – noun, composure.[2][10]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Moderately cold; giving relief from heat.
  2. Calm and self-controlled.
  3. Indifferent or unfriendly.
  4. Of colours such as blue and green, suggesting coolness.
  5. (slang) Excellent; fashionable.
  6. Of a sum of money, used for emphasis: a cool million.

Verb

  1. To make or become less warm.
  2. To make or become calmer or less ardent.

Noun

  1. A cool place or time: the cool of the evening.
  2. (slang) Composure: keep one's cool.

Word family

  • coolish
  • coolly
  • coolness
  • coolingly
  • coolheaded
  • overcool
  • supercool
  • ultracool
  • cold
  • chill
  • congeal
  • jelly
  • gelid

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares cool with composed, collected, unruffled, nonchalant and imperturbable: cool usually suggests just a lack of excitement, but may also mean aloofness.[13]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
  13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin