Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Cool or cool?

Irish Times (online), 27/09/11

How cool is that?

This teaser just shows how language can change, or how old Subs never die.

"Cool" is used here in the older sense of "reluctant" or "not in favour of".

To the young modern reader the headline would mean that Enda had no problem with lifting the salary cap.

The full teaser is below which clarifies the meaning a bit.


And the full piece is here.


2 comments:

  1. This may the influence of a specific soap I watched religiously a couple of years back (on DVD), but I would tend to say "cool _with_" when meaning to say "OK with".
    As in:
    - "I own a pet orangutan, are you cool with that?
    - No problem, dude." :)
    (...)

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  2. @anonymous

    You are, of course, technically correct, and Aonghus Ó hAlmhain (nár laga Dia a lámh) has already taken me to task on this one.

    My contention is that the word cool has changed in meaning over the years, particularly as far as young people are concerned, and that the same young people, not to mention many of their elders, are increasingly disregarding prepositional distinctions.

    Salut les Copains.


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