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It seems possible that an interesting thread might be developed concerning the origins, differences among cultures, and the various names for the concept "cool"
I think that it basically refers to control of emotions.
Control suggests a source of strength, lack of control, weakness.
Imagine two very primitive men meeting unexpectedly. If one is calm, and the other shows fear, the calm one has an advantage.
The Greeks allegedly had a word for everthing. What was their equivalent of "cool" ?
The Latin aequanimitas was a broad philosophical term.
So do any of you have ideas about how the concept of "cool" developed? And the shades of meaning in the various closely related words? And the differences in various cultures?
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I know we do not say cool in French Québec to mean what you say. We say someone is acting cool (il fait son frais) to mean the person is showing off. It is rather negative.
Kids will use the English cool (c'est pas mal cool) in the same manner though.
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Well, I'm sure we all remember (well, maybe not some of the younger members) the hippy movement which somehow was also linked to the jazz scene, and the use of "cool" to describe something particularly good, often music. There were drug-related connotations as well, weren't there. What goes round comes round, and it's back, but with a much more generic approbative meaning - if I ask one of our analysts or progrmmers to do something, they'll often reply, "Okay, that's cool." I grit my teeth every time I hear it. It's up there with "no probs" meaning "that's fine"! 
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I grit my teeth every time I hear it. It's up there with "no probs" meaning "that's fine"! Now, CapK, it's not cool to be dissing the peeps who say no probs. Give them their props, eh? Loki Quordlepleen
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My early acquaintance with the word was when I first worked with professional musicians. They used the word "cool" when a musician had done a difficult, perfectly executed solo without breaking a sweat.
Subsequently I heard "cool" used for performances that went especially well. I'm talking the early 1940s. I was particularly pleased when a jazz group, appearing after my performance in a variety show, told me my "Bell Song" from Lakme was "Cool!"
Perhaps it was used before that but that's when I heard it.
wow
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"grit my teeth every time I hear it. It's up there with "no probs" meaning "that's fine"! "
around these parts, 'cool' has never lost its cool, provided it's not overrused. I think it's most often used as a replacement for 'neat' (as in "You got a promotion?? COOL!").
As for "no probs".... that would sound pretty strange here, though "No problem" is quite prevalant. What we say in that context is "no worries", which for some reason i always thought came from that side of the pond, no??
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Forgive the repetition, but the concept must be an old one. Surely there must have been phrases for it much earlier than any of the replies so far. How about the Brit term "bounder"? I have the impression it referred in the beginning to someone who was inappropriately enthusiastic, and thus "uncool". What do you say, maverick and RhubarbCommando?
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>...the concept must be an old one.
indeed, with many related shadings.
1602 Vpon the heate and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle coole patience. -Hamlet
1855 While she wept, and I strove to be cool. -Tennyson
1947 (record by Charlie Parker Quartet, Dial 1015) Cool Blues.
1959 Observer They got long, sloppy haircuts and wide knot ties and no-press suits with fat lapels. Very cool.
by the way, CK, don't confuse the hippies with the beats; it was the latter who are associated with cool jazz.
afterthought: Maynard G. Krebs was a beatnik, not a hippy!
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In Urbino, Italy, between 1444 and 1482, there was a civilization so perfected that there was a PBS TV documentary on it almost twenty years ago.
Somewhere I read that in their tournaments, the swordsman most highly regarded was the one who could win with the least apparent exertion. Surely a demonstration for "cool" even if the word for it was not given.
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Ah well, the confusion between beatniks, hippies and 1940s jazz is to be expected as I've never really studied any of those phenomena in any depth. Mea culpa. The fact is, however, that the word "cool" is NOT one of my favourite usages.
tsuwm said afterthought: Maynard G. Krebs was a beatnik, not a hippy!
And (to move to far safer ground) John Maynard Keynes was an economist, not a beatnik!
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