For me, as others, it is a difficult concept. Almost always that which is deemed "cool" comes with a proviso: something is not as cool as it used to be, or is too cool or cool, but is trying too hard. So where is the root of cool? Often "cool" is ephermeral and transitive, and is definitely subjective. Is "cool" a state of mind, a state of being, a form of social marking even? Whilst notoriously diffcult to pin down due to the subjectivity, I have seen that that which to me seems cool, paradoxically becomes less so simply by the labelling thereof. Is it therefore that "cool" is only cool until labelled cool, as "cool" itself is intrinsically not cool? And what to make of the following? "Cool is a knowledge, a way of life." -- Lewis Macadams "Cool is an age-specific phenomenon, defined as the central behavioural trait of teenagerhood." --Unknown "Coolness is the proper way you represent yourself to a human being." -- Robert Farris Thompson "The act of discovering what's cool is what causes cool to move on" -- Unknown "Cool cannot be manufactured, only observed" -- Unknown "[Cool] can only be observed by those who are themselves cool". -- Unknown Your worldy thoughts please.
So, is your coolness made evident by this cool thread?.....too cool. That's all I know to say....I do believe I am now thinking too much about what is and isn't cool...
Cool is...well, I think that it would be not caring what is cool. The coolest people seem to be people who create their own versions of what is cool, and then others follow. Once too many people are doing the cool thing...well, then it's not cool anymore.
After thinking about it, I believe....Cool is out of the ordinary...it is that one thing so unique in its nature, that it stands on its own merit! Thus being totally cool!
who uses the term 'cool' these days?.. has it made it back from the 50s, into the latest slang, or what?
Does that make Peter O'Toole cool?.......Just a random thought...I'll go back to my boreing life now....lol
I hope not. And possibly by defintion not. I'm no expert though I am confused. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Our Living Language : 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 borrowed into other languages, such as French and German. Originally this sense is a development from a Black English usage meaning "excellent, superlative," first recorded in written English in the early 1930s. Jazz musicians who used the term are responsible for its popularization during the 1940s. As a slang word expressing generally positive sentiment, it has stayed current (and cool) 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 meaning the same thing as cool, like bully, capital, hot, groovy, hep, crazy, nervous, far-out, rad, and tubular have for the most part not had the staying power or continued universal appeal of cool. In general there is no intrinsic reason why one word stays alive and others get consigned to the scrapheap of linguistic history; slang terms are like fashion designs, constantly changing and never "in" for long. The jury is still out on how long newer expressions of approval such as def and phat will survive.
Cool is what ever you want cool to be - if it's actually cool then every one else will follow. if your trying to hard or its not actually cool, they wont.
'Cool' To me is quirkyness, body mods and piercings... We would say these make people 'unique' although it is actually making them more the same because someone else is bound to have that mod or peircing. Someone who is not scared to be different and stand out from the crowd, I think just like beauty, cool is in the eye of the beholder.
Word's of wisdom. I'm not going to go on a rampage bashing this about our society and that, but what people consider "cool" can certainly be quite the opposite. Of course, I consider myself cool and that could be a frightening way to look at the world...
I definitely agree with that, me and my friend started a clothing trend at my school, you don't know how great it is when someone walks by and i whisper "Psst. I Invented that!" Hilarious.
