a cool two thousands

[sitifan]

He earns a cool two thousands a month.
(my bold, quoted from A Dictionary of Answers to Common Questions in English, by Zhao Zhencai)

What does the expression in bold mean?

 

[probus]

1. We need context in order to know what currency he's earning. Dollars? Pounds? Shekels? Rupees?

2. Using the plural thousands is very old fashioned.

3. Cool is slang. I'd take it as an intensifier indicating that he gets at least two thousand, and probably without much effort.

 

[emsr2d2]

As it stands, "two thousands" is at best completely unnatural and at worst, totally incorrect. The only context in which it would work, for me, would be if the currency were called the "thousand" and he earns two of them every month.
I would take the use of "cool" simply to be the opinion of the speaker - he's/she's at least slightly impressed by the level of that person's earnings.

 

[Rover_KE]

He earns a cool two thousands a month.
(my bold, quoted from A Dictionary of Answers to Common Questions in English, by Zhao Zhencai)

What is the common question that this is the answer to?

 

[sitifan]

What is the common question that this is the answer to?

Someone asks Prof. Zhao what the sentence means. Prof. Zhao translates the sentence into Chinese.
Below is my back translation from the Chinese:
His net earnings are two thousand pounds a month.

 

[jutfrank]

See use 12 here:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cool

 

[probus]

I vehemently protest that those hounds at Collins Dictionary have shamelessly plagiarized my post here in their definition number 12.