Word: cool Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English cool, from Old English cōl (“cool, cold, tranquil, calm”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōl(ī), from Proto-Germanic *kōluz (“cool”), from *kalaną (“to be cold, to freeze”), Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold, to freeze”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian kool, koul, kuul, kölj, kööl (“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. Pronunciation: /kuːl/, /kul/, /kʉl/, /kʲɪul/, /kʲuːl/ 1. Of a mildly low temperature. Example: 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. Example: 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. Example: Linen has made cool and breathable clothing for millennia. Example: 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. Example: If you have a reddish complexion, you should mainly wear cool colors. 4. Not showing emotion; calm and in control of oneself. Example: Be cool. There's no need to panic. 5. Unenthusiastic; lukewarm; skeptical. Example: His proposals had a cool reception. 6. Calmly audacious. Labels: obsolete Example: Its cool stare of familiarity was intolerable. Example: 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. Example: Who will lend me a cool hundred. Example: 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. Labels: informal Example: […] 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. Example: 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. Labels: informal Example: You be nice without long hair. Now it's cool, hmm? Example: 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. Labels: informal Example: Is it cool if I sleep here tonight? Example: 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. Labels: informal Example: I think astronomy is really cool. 12. Followed by with: able to tolerate. Labels: informal Example: I'm completely cool with my girlfriend leaving me. 13. Of a pair of people, Having good relations. Labels: informal Example: We're cool, right?