And, yeah, cool does have a connotation of a not-het-up-ness, a chill-ness, a being relaxed and unruffle-ability. And I do frequently use it in that sense. But from that sense there's also a derivative meaning, of not caring about how others are perceiving you -- which is an element of the original meaning but when you strip away the other elements you get the possibility that a person is being cool when they're all het up about something but don't care if other people think they're being, well, uncool. This is also in super common use, which I'm sure you're already aware -- one will hear declarations that it's "cool to care about things" or such.
I'm reminded of Nick's use of the term "nerd" -- we've gotten into minor disagreements about said usage. "Nerd" to me has a specific connotation, to call someone a nerd would mean that they are performing some kind of nerd behaviour, eg geeking out about something. Nick uses the term much more broadly to indicate endearment -- he likes nerds, and so when someone performs a behaviour he enjoys, even if that behaviour is not inherently "nerdy", doing that still makes them a "nerd" to him. Similarly one can imagine a person calling someone "cool" because said someone is performing a behaviour the first person admires -- and they admire cool people, therefore the person being admired is cool.
Anyway. Absolutely I would never think of you as "cool" in the first sense, but in the sense of "reading is cool" and "caring about things is cool" and "being yourself is cool", I am sure I have called you as such. I'll try to remember to not do so in the future, but of course know that my intentions were to express that admiration.
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And, yeah, cool does have a connotation of a not-het-up-ness, a chill-ness, a being relaxed and unruffle-ability. And I do frequently use it in that sense. But from that sense there's also a derivative meaning, of not caring about how others are perceiving you -- which is an element of the original meaning but when you strip away the other elements you get the possibility that a person is being cool when they're all het up about something but don't care if other people think they're being, well, uncool. This is also in super common use, which I'm sure you're already aware -- one will hear declarations that it's "cool to care about things" or such.
I'm reminded of Nick's use of the term "nerd" -- we've gotten into minor disagreements about said usage. "Nerd" to me has a specific connotation, to call someone a nerd would mean that they are performing some kind of nerd behaviour, eg geeking out about something. Nick uses the term much more broadly to indicate endearment -- he likes nerds, and so when someone performs a behaviour he enjoys, even if that behaviour is not inherently "nerdy", doing that still makes them a "nerd" to him. Similarly one can imagine a person calling someone "cool" because said someone is performing a behaviour the first person admires -- and they admire cool people, therefore the person being admired is cool.
Anyway. Absolutely I would never think of you as "cool" in the first sense, but in the sense of "reading is cool" and "caring about things is cool" and "being yourself is cool", I am sure I have called you as such. I'll try to remember to not do so in the future, but of course know that my intentions were to express that admiration.
End-thoughts