Is the modern use of “cooking” as slang even new? In 1978, Van Halen used the term in what seems to me to be the modern way: “You think you’re really cookin’, baby”
Edit: Curious if there was similar precedent for the slang usage of “cooked”, I searched for the phrases “he’s/she’s/they’re/I’m/we’re/is/was cooked” on songsear.ch, which is my preferred albeit imperfect lyric search engine, and filtered for each 20th century decade. In order of oldest to newest, the best matches for the slang usage I found were:
Is the modern use of “cooking” as slang even new? In 1978, Van Halen used the term in what seems to me to be the modern way: “You think you’re really cookin’, baby”
Edit: Curious if there was similar precedent for the slang usage of “cooked”, I searched for the phrases “he’s/she’s/they’re/I’m/we’re/is/was cooked” on songsear.ch, which is my preferred albeit imperfect lyric search engine, and filtered for each 20th century decade. In order of oldest to newest, the best matches for the slang usage I found were:
A Frank Sinatra song from 1955: “You’re hooked, you’re cooked / You’re caught in the tender trap”
A song by The Cure from 1987: “I’m smitten, I’m bitten, I’m hooked, I’m cooked, I’m stuck like glue”
A song by Roughhouse from 1988: “Don’t look or you’ll get hooked, your ass is cooked”
I’m not familiar with the song.
Personally I haven’t seen cooking used in slang until Breaking Bad became obnoxiously popular.
But that’s just my experience.
deleted by creator
In the show is wasn’t but pop culture ran amok with that one.