cool

adj

Etymology: From Middle English cool, from Old English cōl (“cool, cold, tranquil, calm”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōl(ī), from Proto-Germanic *kōlaz, *kōluz (“cool”), from *kalaną (“to be cold, to freeze”), Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold, to freeze”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian kuul, kölj (“cold”), Saterland Frisian köil (“cool”), West Frisian koel (“cool”), Cimbrian khuul (“chilly, cool”), Dutch koel (“cool”), German kühl (“cool”), Low German köhl (“cool”), Luxembourgish kill (“cool”), Vilamovian kił (“cool”); also Latin gelū, gelum, gelus (“frost; chill, cold”), Belarusian хо́лад (xólad, “cold”), Bulgarian хлад (hlad, “chill, coolness”), Czech chlad (“cold”), Macedonian лад (lad, “shade; coolness”), Polish chłód (“cold”), Russian and Ukrainian хо́лод (xólod, “cold”), Serbo-Croatian хла̑д, hlȃd (“shade”), Sanskrit जड (jaḍa, “cold; stiff”), जल (jala, “water”). Related to cold.

1. Of a mildly low temperature.

   “I like cool weather the most 'cause it's not too hot to wear a jacket but I won't be too cold in my shorts.”

   “The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:[…].”

2. Allowing or suggesting heat relief.

   “Linen has made cool and breathable clothing for millennia.”

   “Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.”

3. Of a color, in the range of violet to green.

   “If you have a reddish complexion, you should mainly wear cool colors.”

4. Not showing emotion; calm and in control of oneself.

   “Be cool. There's no need to panic.”

5. Unenthusiastic; lukewarm; skeptical.

   “His proposals had a cool reception.”

6. Calmly audacious.

   “Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable.”

   “In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool.”

7. Applied facetiously to a sum of money, commonly as if to give emphasis to the largeness of the amount.

   “Who will lend me a cool hundred.”

   “But she had wrote out a little coddleshell in her own hand a day or two afore the accident, leaving a cool four thousand to Mr. Matthew Pocket.”

8. Knowing what to do and how to behave; behaving with effortless and enviable style and panache; considered popular by others.

   “[…] while the coachman holding whip and reins in one hand, takes off his hat with the other, and resting it on his knees, pulls out his handkerchief, and wipes his forehead, partly because he has a habit of doing it, and partly because it's as well to shew the passengers how cool he is, and what an easy thing it is to drive four-in-hand, when you have had as much practice as he has.”

   “Maggie the au pair, and Pam P. on the school bus and Billy G. with his Grateful Dead records were all deeply cool people. But they weren’t cool because they smoked. They smoked because they were cool.”

9. Fashionable; trendy; hip.

   “You be nice without long hair. Now it's cool, hmm?”

   “2008, Lou Schuler, "Foreward", in Nate Green, Built for Show, page xii The fact that I was middle-aged, bald, married, and raising girls instead of chasing them didn't really bother me. Muscles are cool at any age.”

10. All right; acceptable; good.

    “Is it cool if I sleep here tonight?”

    “Now everything's cool, Drac's a part of the band / And my Monster Mash is the hit of the land / For you, the living, this Mash was meant too / When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you.”

11. Very interesting or exciting.

    “I think astronomy is really cool.”

12. Followed by with: able to tolerate.

    “I'm completely cool with my girlfriend leaving me.”

13. Of a pair of people, Having good relations.

    “We're cool, right?”

name

1. Initialism of CLIPS Object-Oriented Language.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English cool, from Old English cōl (“cool, cold, tranquil, calm”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōl(ī), from Proto-Germanic *kōlaz, *kōluz (“cool”), from *kalaną (“to be cold, to freeze”), Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold, to freeze”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian kuul, kölj (“cold”), Saterland Frisian köil (“cool”), West Frisian koel (“cool”), Cimbrian khuul (“chilly, cool”), Dutch koel (“cool”), German kühl (“cool”), Low German köhl (“cool”), Luxembourgish kill (“cool”), Vilamovian kił (“cool”); also Latin gelū, gelum, gelus (“frost; chill, cold”), Belarusian хо́лад (xólad, “cold”), Bulgarian хлад (hlad, “chill, coolness”), Czech chlad (“cold”), Macedonian лад (lad, “shade; coolness”), Polish chłód (“cold”), Russian and Ukrainian хо́лод (xólod, “cold”), Serbo-Croatian хла̑д, hlȃd (“shade”), Sanskrit जड (jaḍa, “cold; stiff”), जल (jala, “water”). Related to cold.

1. A moderate or refreshing state of cold; moderate temperature of the air between hot and cold; coolness.

   “in the cool of the morning”

2. A calm temperament.
3. The property of being cool, popular or in fashion.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English colen, from Old English cōlian (“to cool, grow cold, be cold”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōlēn (“to become cold”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to freeze”). Cognate with Dutch koelen (“to cool”), German kühlen (“to cool”), Swedish kyla (“to cool, refrigerate”). Also partially from Middle English kelen, from Old English cēlan (“to cool, be cold, become cold”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōlijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōlijaną (“to cool”), altered to resemble the adjective cool. See keel.

1. To lose heat, to get colder.

   “I like to let my tea cool before drinking it so I don't burn my tongue.”

2. To make cooler, less warm.

   “Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.”

3. To become less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.

   “Relations cooled between the USA and the USSR after 1980.”

4. To make less intense, e.g. less amicable or passionate.

   “We have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts.”

5. To kill, murder.

   “Maybe he would die. That would mean I had murdered him. I smiled, trying the idea on for size. One of the things that always had cheesed me a little was that I had no kills to my credit. I'd been in plenty of rumbles, but somehow, I'd never cooled anyone. Well maybe now I had my first one. I couldn't feel very proud of skulling an old man, but at least I could say that I'd scored. That was a big kick.”

   “Big-mouth got up as fast as he could, and I was thinking how much heart he had. But I ran toward him like my life depended on it; I wanted to cool him.”

6. To relax, hang out.

   “Seen my homeboys coolin' way way out / Told 'em bout my mornin' cold bugged' em out”

   “"What up, kid?" ¶ "Coolin'."”