Kool

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A nonstandard or slang spelling of the word meaning fashionable, excellent, or of low temperature
2. An alternate spelling used informally to describe something impressive, acceptable, or cold
3. A casual variant form of the standard word meaning attractive, satisfactory, or having low heat

Etymology: "Kool" is English back slang for "look," formed by reversing the letters of the original word. Back slang, also called "backslang," was used in Britain, especially in London, as a playful or coded way of speaking, and it flourished among costermongers, market traders, and street communities. Speakers would reverse a word's spelling and then pronounce the result as a new word, so "look" became "kool" and "yob" (itself back slang for "boy") shows the same pattern. The reversal here is simple: the four letters of "look" run l-o-o-k, and reading them backwards gives k-o-o-l. Because the spelling was turned around rather than the sounds, "kool" is pronounced much like "cool," which is a notable quirk of the system. Its meaning stayed fixed on the original sense of looking at or seeing something, so the coded word simply stood in for an everyday verb.