I Thought a Cougar Was a Cat

There I was, innocently reading today's Star Tribune Source section, when I saw this headline over a good-sized photo of the most recent winner of American Idol:

Cougars go for David Cook

Wondering what the heck that meant, I read the article's deck to see if it would help me out, but all it said was: "New American Idol has fans among women of a certain age."

Not so much help there. So I read the lead:

"Cougars 4 Cook." There it was, on a poster in the "American Idol" audience last week... And that slogan -- not to mention the woman who hoisted it -- speaks to the 25-year-old singer's popularity with, ahem, women of a certain age.

Okay, so I'm getting the idea that "cougar" somehow refers to women "of a certain age," but reading through the story gives me nothing else, let alone a definition.

As I am wont to do, I took a quick spin through the Google universe and discovered via many sites, including the Urban Dictionary, that a cougar is a woman of at least 35, usually more like 45, still attractive, who pursues young men, usually under 25.

Where did this term come from? When did it start getting used, and why haven't I heard it before? I mean, if we've gotten to the point where it's being used in a newspaper headline with no explanation in the story -- doesn't that mean that at least 50 percent of the reading audience must know what it means?

Unfortunately, my online search didn't turn up any derivation references. The Wikipedia came through with some specific citations, however. The earliest was a National Lampoon movie from 2004, but most are in the last year or so.

Maybe the Strib is trying to look hip by giving such prominence to a word that only the young know, leaving those of us who are as old as a cougar out of the club.

I guess I should get used to it. Sigh.