Did you know that "cool", meaning "good", has been carried into Chinese as "ku"?

Part of the appeal of *cool* is the that it's very natural to say, and its sounds have many variations; that is, it's fun to say. There's "coooooool", and "kewl" and "so cool" and many other vocal changes that can't be reproduced here. The fact that it's so natural, however, is what puts it above most other choices. Awesome, hot, bitchin', none of them roll off the tongue like "oooooooo" does.

No, I didn't know that. Interesting. Ku. (I'm not sure I know how to reply… here goes.)

Did you know that "cool", meaning "good", has been carried into Chinese as "ku"?

Oops. Sorry mark… I seem to have fouled up the format here so you are misquoted.

Part of the appeal of *cool* is the that it's very natural to say, and its sounds have many variations; that is, it's fun to say. There's "coooooool", and "kewl" and "so cool" and many other vocal changes that can't be reproduced here. The fact that it's so natural, however, is what puts it above most other choices. Awesome, hot, bitchin', none of them roll off the tongue like "oooooooo" does.

Personally, I was sorry to see "mint" fall into disuse. Hey, how's about we all conspire to bring it back?

Wan't sorry to see "malt" go, though.

Can't stand "bitchin'". Sounds to much like kvetching. I bet they're etymologically related. Can you picture a Jewish person saying "man, that's kvetchin'!"

cantgetitoomh said:

Weird may not be the best word for this. Maybe revolutionary. I am prone to having word "pet peeves," and now
propose something I predict to be virtually impossible. Anybody remember when Madonna sort of ridiculed Kevin Costner because he said her (presumably sensational?) stage show was "neat"? It has to be well over half a century now, the popular term for something considered good, or very good, is "cool." I am sick of the word "cool" as an affirmative or superlative, but I don't think there are any other vernacular terms that compete with it. I would like to either delete or at least demote "cool" from popular slang, but I can't think of anything that would take its place. So… maybe some other thoughts on this. One recent slang innovation occurs to me: The hyperbolic "awesome." I want to replace these with something else. Virtually impossible?

I think it's interesting that "cool" has had such persistence. Usually, I think, the next generation — or even the hipsters next month — distances itself from any slang word used by the previous one. But perhaps that sense of "cool" is no longer slang. As for me, I went back to using "neat" in the sense Mr. Costner used it, but I'll admit to occasionally using it with a sense of almost-ennui, just slightly positive of apathy, for what I'm describing (I also use "swell" occasionally for this). But that's just reviving old slang. In my younger, skater days (early- to mid-80s), my friends and I used "rad" and "wicked", which were fun and had a bit of a resurgence, I think, recently. I don't know that "awesome" has ever really fallen into disuse since it came around a little before "rad", so I'm not sure how recent the term is, but I agree that it's become the same as "cool". Both terms, in their sense of great approval, seem to me to be making the move out of *slang* and into common vernacular.

On a related note, a friend of mine — and it caught on with many of my friends — started using "dot-com" as a synonym for "cool" in the early 90s. Someone would say something, and the appreciative response would be "Dot-com!" or "That's some dot-com s***". I always thought it was pretty funny, though I didn't use it myself, but I think that was a phrase that would have been funny, if it ever were, only in its era — the early days of the World Wide Web. I guess my rambling message was all to say: "Good luck with your quest."

Post edited 10:50PM – Aug-22-10 by Heimhenge

In the 80s and early 90s, it was "phat" and not "fat." I guess the alternate spelling conferred a sense of uniqueness and rebellion to convention. I had to ask a student what it meant, and that's how he explained it.