Definition of Cool

From wicked good, to psychedelic, to "word", there is no reason why older generations never understand what the youth today consider the latest slang. Our ever-growing vocabulary, to express our emotions and feelings, is never consistent or rigid in its capacity. However, one word that I have not only grown accustomed to in my daily life but also of my mother's generation is the single syllable, "cool". When something becomes common, it is hard to tell when it began. The usage of cool as a general positive epithet or interjection has been part and parcel of English slang since World War II, and has even been incorporated into other languages, such as French and German. Originally, in this sense, it is derived from a Black English usage meaning "excellent, superlative," first recorded in written English in the early 1930s. Jazz musicians who used the term were responsible for its popularization during the 1940s. As a slang word expressing generally positive sentiment, it has stayed current far longer than most such words. One of the main characteristics of slang is the continual renewal of its vocabulary and storehouse of expressions: in order for slang to stay slangy, it has to have a feeling of novelty. Slang expressions that mean the same as cool, are words such as bully, capital, hot, groovy, hip, crazy, far-out, rad, and tubular.

Growing up for over sixteen years, I have the knowledge of using the word cool in its various forms. As a little boy I never would want to embarrass myself amongst the my sister's friends who were much older and wiser than I. There was never room for any embarrassing mishap in my quest for being considered cool. As a young middle-schooler, I always looked up to the senior boys. Whenever I would run to and fro my next class, I would hear from a senior waltzing to his classes, "Hey man. Stay cool," not at first knowing his true motive. Growing up, you might at first not understand the true meaning of the term, but through experience, one learns of the meaning in its entirety so as to use in daily life. However, one thing has proven itself apparent in the one-syllable word, that other slang terms have not had the staying power or continued universal appeal as cool. In general there is no intrinsic reason why one word stays alive and others get consigned to the scrap-heap of linguistic history; slang terms are like fashion designs, constantly changing and never "in"