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The Evolution of “COOL” 谈「酷」

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I’m “cool”, you tell a concerned friend. You mean you’re alright. “Now this guy’s cool,” say your classmates, as they look at the school favorite. They say he is terrific. Cool, cool, cool – we use it all the time, but where, exactly, does this hot morsel of the English language come from?

「我还好」，你对关心的朋友这么说。你的意思是你没什么不舒服。「这家伙真是酷！」你的同学这么说，他们正看着学校的明星。他们说他棒透了。「还好」、「酷」、「酷毙了」，我们一天到晚都在说，但这个英文里的热门字到底从哪儿来的呢？

“Cool” didn’t always mean what it means today. Chaucer used it in the 1300s. Shakespeare did so in Hamlet in 1602, where Queen Gertrude implores her son to meet the flame of his displeasure with “cool patience.” In the early 1900s, it meant a big amount of money, as in a cool million.

Cool这个字的意思随着时间的推进而有所改变。在1300年的时候，乔叟就用了这个字，1602年时，莎士比亚在《哈姆雷特》中也用了这个字，剧中哈姆雷特的母后葛楚恳求她的儿子在他愤怒的烈焰上，浇洒一些「冷静的耐性」。在1900年代初期，Cool指的是一大笔钱，如「整整」一百万。

The first hint that “cool” would come to mean what it means today – that is, “hip” – emerged in jazz clubs during the 1940s. There, one would encounter “cool” musicians playing their “cool” music. It was also used to signify one’s approval, as in “cool playin’, brother.”

在1940年代，Cool的现代用法──也就是「时髦的」──首先出现在爵士俱乐部。在俱乐部中，可以看到「酷」音乐家演奏「酷」音乐。Cool也可以用来表示赞同，如「演奏得很好，兄弟！」

According to some specialists, cool should have cooled down, like so many other slang worlds, after a while. Instead, it managed to survive by evolving. Hippies, surfers, rappers and techno-geeks all adopted it and used it to mean something different. “Cool,” the way we understand it today, went mainstream in the 1950s and ‘60s, when society needed a word to express attitude without anger. The hippies’ flower power and peace were cool.

根据某些专业人士，Cool这个字，就跟其他的俚语一样，本该在流行一阵子之后便沈寂下来的。然而，它反而借着意思的演变而生存下来。嬉皮、冲浪者、饶舌歌手和科技迷都采用这个字来称呼不同的东西。现在我们所熟悉的意思「酷毙了」是在1950年代和60年代成为主流。当时的社会需要一个字来表达他们不带愤怒的态度。嬉皮的「权力归花」及和平的口号很「酷」。

Cool has certainly become a member of the slang hall of fame. For the moment, cool is cool. It leaves us to wonder what new cool meaning the great survivor will take on next.

Cool这个字当然已成为俚语名人堂的一员。目前，Cool就是「酷」。这让我们不禁好奇这个了不起的旧单字接下来又会有什么新鲜的意思呢？

−by J. Michael Cole

Vocabulary

evolution [͵ɛvəˋluʃən] n. 發展，進展

concerned [kənˋsɝnd] adj. 擔心的; 關心的

signify [ˋsɪgnə͵faɪ] v. 示意

More Information

favorite [ˋfevərɪt] n. 最受歡迎的人

morsel [ˋmɔrs!] n.（食物的）一口，一片; 使人愉快的事

implore [ɪmˋplor] v. 乞求，哀求

hint [hɪnt] n. 跡象; 暗示﹐示意

hip [hɪp] adj. 新潮的﹐趕時髦的

after a while 不久，过一会儿

hippie [ˋhɪpɪ] n. 嬉痞

rapper [ˋræpɚ] n. 饒舌歌手

techno-geek [gik] n. 科技迷

adopt [əˋdɑpt] v. 採納；吸收

slang hall of fame  俚语名人堂的

Reading Questions

1.   What does Queen Gertrude mean when she asks Hamlet to use “cool patience?”

A.  That he should be cold-blooded in his search for a murderer.

B.  That he should avoid becoming angry and be patient.

C.  That he should show no patience whatsoever.

D.  That he should apply a cool object to his forehead.

2.   When did the word “cool” begin to take on its modern meanings?

A.  The early 1600s.

B.  The mid-nineteenth century.

C.  The early 1900s.

D.  The mid-twentieth century.

3.   Which of the following best characterized the word “cool?”

A.  It is a term whose definitions have always been vague.

B.  It is an idiom that has remained fixed throughout the years.

C.  It is an expression whose definitions have changed with the times.

D.  It is a world that can only be associated with a special group of people.

Answer