| Author: |
Gedeon Hortulanyi |
| Dated: |
Thursday, January 27 2005 @ 12:40 PM EST |
| Viewed: |
1842 times |
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The definition of the word cool, according to the Canadian Gage Dictionary, is: somewhat cold; colder than hot; bold or impudent; admirable or excellent. I have noticed that the word cool has taken on a more sinister connotation as it has evolved.
The baby boomers of the 50’s and 60’s used the word cool to describe temperature. They also used the word to describe someone who was not easily excited or who was calm and unemotional.
In my preteen, adolescent years, towards the late 60’s and early 70’s, the word cool took the place of a wide range of words used to describe what I considered impressive or good. I also used the word cool to approve something, anything. Before long, the word stunted the growth of my vocabulary. It took the place of one descriptive word after another. In my later teens it seemed that this was not only happening to me, it was happening to my friends and much of my generation. Pretty soon everything was either cool or shit, with no in-between and that was that, a truly sad state of literary affairs.
In the 80’s, the meaning of the word cool continued to evolve. It seemed to take on a more sinister connotation. If you chose to tell on someone, then you were not only a rat, but also uncool and promptly beat-up. If you went to church, listened to your parents, went to a library or didn’t smoke pot, you were uncool.
This term, which started with the beatniks, hippies and really “cool” daddios, mutated, and then saturated our language of the day. To most, to be uncool was to be a geek, a moron and an idiot, out of style and out of touch. The general consensus seemed to be death before uncoolness.
The climax of this language debauchery made itself known to me in the middle 90’s. I realized that the word cool was being used to describe someone who was apart of an exclusive club, The Brotherhood of Evil. To be hurtful, hateful, unkind, unforgiving, vicious and immoral was cool. To reassure a club member that an acquaintance of yours, which you had just introduced for the first time, is all of these things and more, you would simply say, “Oh don’t worry, he’s cool.” The word cool has now splintered into words like rad, money, phat and dope.
The word cool has come a long way from its humble beginnings. I think it would be nice if the word cool, once again, referred to the temperature of a breeze, on my face, on a hot summer’s day. Now that would be cool.
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