Why can't people who use the word "cool"?

define it?
I notice that in all sections of YA one sees the word used but any attempt to find out what the user means by it is ignored. I wouldn't feel happy to use and reuse a word that I didn't actually know the meaning of.
Before anyone offers it - the answer that "if you need to ask you would not understand" is a symptom oif the problem not an answer to it!

2011-11-18T17:12:53Z

Rolf, your comment resolved into the "if you need to ask............." bit that I did say was part of the problem and not an answer. The word 'cool' is actually getting used when someone recognises the need for an adjective but doesn't know many.

granny2011-11-18T16:49:27Z

Favorite Answer

cool= slang: very good, excellent, interesting, fun

slang:
I am cool with that. = I agree with that, I am okay with that.

Rolf2011-11-19T01:08:15Z

The word "cool" was used as a slang expression in England by younger members of the community to indicate something that was worthy of respect or trendy. It is, also (as I am sure you know) an adjective that describes the temperature of an object. However, more recently, the word 'hot' is being used as a slang expression to convey the meaning trendy or desirable, and this seems to have replaced the word 'cool' that more or less had the same (slang) meaning. Hence, one cannot know precisely what is meant when a (younger) person uses the word "cool". Then you have to allow that the slang and ordinary meanings of words changes over time, and place, and we often find that the US adopt alternative meanings for words to the British!

This, I suspect, is the reason that you are finding it difficult to find out what a user means when using this word, as asking that very question, exposes you as a person who is not a member of that particular peer group, in fact, an outsider who is not 'tuned in', just like the rest of us!

Laura2011-11-19T00:46:53Z

Cool story.

It's because it's a relative term ..

Randy P2011-11-19T00:43:47Z

I'm cool with that.