Originating in the 1940’s amongst jazz musicians, the slang term of the word “cool” has worked it’s way into today’s everyday language (cool, whatis).  The word cool can be defined in two different ways—once as an adjective, and once as a noun.  Today’s society uses the adjective definition more often.

      The Oxford English Dictionary defines cool as 1: adj, of or at fairly low temperature; soothing or refreshing because of it’s low temperature: keeping one from becoming too hot; showing no friendliness towards a person; calmly audacious;(of jazz) restrained and relaxed.  Though the slang term of cool may be accepted worldwide, the OED has yet to accept it’s new definition.

      The one dictionary I found to contain the slang definition for the word cool is the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.  Not only did this dictionary have the slang definition of this word, but it also had it’s history, where the word originated from.  According to Merriam-Webster, cool stemmed from the “Middle English word col, from Old English cOl; akin to Old High German kuoli cool, Old English ceald cold”(M-W.com).  Merriam-Webster defined the slang term cool as: very good, excellent; all right, fashionable.  Though MW may have a general definition of the word cool, the term gains more meanings as the years pass on.
 
     The slang term cool should be accepted into every dictionary in today’s day and age.  Not only used by the youth, many adults and teachers use the slang word while talking with young children or during class.  Youth today uses the term to describe a class or teacher they think is nice or fun; they also use the term when in greeting—ex. “How are you today?” “I’m cool”.  The latest addition to the slang term cool is “cool as” or “cool like”.  When talking to my little brother and I ask how his day went, he will respond with “Cool as hell”, meaning he had a really good day.  I also remember a very autistic boy I attended high school with who frequented the phrase “Cool as Whip”.  Whenever he was having a good day, he would walk around the halls, repeating this phrase to everybody.

      The many definitions for the slang term cool are universally accepted today; even my pen pal from Finland, Regina, knows the meaning of the slang word.  The simple fact that the definition is verbally accepted and understood worldwide and not put into every standard American dictionary is amazing today.  Hopefully, in the years to come, more slang words like cool will find a home in every standard dictionary in America.