On Fri, Jan 06, 2023 at 01:26:54PM -0600, David Wright wrote: > And cool in this modern sense (and words like awesome, wicked, and so > on) is quite recent. > > Rather, > > coo² (slang) interjection, expressive of surprise. (Chambers) > > and this has been around far longer than my lifetime. > In the context I used it in, it expresses glitz for its own > sake, rather than adding any needed functionality. The gimmicks > attract the unsophisticated eye, but that's all there is, with > no underlying substance. > > In particular, it's a derogatory term, unlike cool, which is > generally a term of approval.
When using slang, the current meaning is the one that will be understood by your audience. Not some archaic meaning. I know that's going to be an obstacle for many of the people here, since we're generally a mature bunch, but that's the nature of a living language. If you want to use a slang term that you know is pretty old, and you aren't sure whether its meaning is still the same, you can look it up on Urban Dictionary, or just Google it and see what contexts you get for it. Or, when in doubt, just don't use the slang term at all. There are people here for whom English is a second language, and slang terms and idioms tend to confuse them immensely.
