Cool
Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 10:24 pm
Cool
I recently came across this passage in Wilkie Collins's novel The Moonstone (1868):
"She [Rachel] has been a guest of yours at this house", I answered. "May I venture to suggest - if nothing was said about me beforehand - that I might see her here?"
"Cool!" said Mr Bruff. With that one word of comment on the reply that I had made to him, he took another turn up and down the room.
How are we to take the word "Cool"? The context is that Mr Bruff approves of the suggestion and considers it clever. Although it is possible that "cool" may be meant in its then-established sense of "calm, phlegmatic, nonchalant", its meaning here seems closer to the modern slang usage as a general, impersonal term of approval. But the modern sense did not arise until the second quarter of the 20th century, under the influence of jazz. Could a similar sense (perhaps not considered slang) have already been current in the mid-19th century?
Any opinions?
I recently came across this passage in Wilkie Collins's novel The Moonstone (1868):
"She [Rachel] has been a guest of yours at this house", I answered. "May I venture to suggest - if nothing was said about me beforehand - that I might see her here?"
"Cool!" said Mr Bruff. With that one word of comment on the reply that I had made to him, he took another turn up and down the room.
How are we to take the word "Cool"? The context is that Mr Bruff approves of the suggestion and considers it clever. Although it is possible that "cool" may be meant in its then-established sense of "calm, phlegmatic, nonchalant", its meaning here seems closer to the modern slang usage as a general, impersonal term of approval. But the modern sense did not arise until the second quarter of the 20th century, under the influence of jazz. Could a similar sense (perhaps not considered slang) have already been current in the mid-19th century?
Any opinions?