• slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    10 months ago

    Not to discredit your point, but 80 years ago was 1944, and everybody then would know what you mean by that 2nd sentence.

    Cool goes back to Shakespeare and beyond. But it was also popular in the American vernacular in the 1930s.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      “Cool” was hardly the only thing modern vernacular about that sentence. It’s use 80 years ago would not have the same meaning now, and in the syntax of the sentence would seem odd, much like the OP’s usage of contemporary slang.

      Believe it or not, just because a word has previously been used as slang doesn’t mean the meaning hasn’t shifted through time. See: “low-key.”