Was the word "bomb" only used as slang in Chile and only in the '80s?

Question

In the hit novel Mala Onda by Chilean author Alberto Fuguet I remember the word "bomb" being used a lot.

It's obviously a slang word. I think it was only used in dialogue. I got the impression it was there to set the tone of the period, which is the very early 1980s.

Una vez fui a su casa, me acuerdo a hacer un trabajo. El impacto fue duro, no pude dormir, quedé bomb.

Regresar a Chile, loco, a este puterío rasca, bomb, con los milicos por todos lados y la repre, las mentes chatas, es más que heavy.

Me siento detrás de ellos, mis ojos enfrentando el estacionamiento, mis oídos enfrentando a estos dos clones de Jerry Lewis en su etapa más bomb.

So how widespread is or was the term "bomb"? Just '80s Chile or beyond?

As a bonus question, what does it mean? Just "cool" or something else?

Answer 1

That word "bomb" (or "bomba" in Spanish) was (and sometimes is) used not only in Chile but in Argentina also. In phrases like:

¡Esto es una bomba! (This is so awesome/cool!)

And:

¡La pasamos bomba! (We had a very good time!)

But as you said it was used more in the '80s and it's not used very often now.

Answer 2

I'm Chilean and in the 80s was a teenager (and therefore used the generational expressions present in "Mala onda"). I can tell you with certainty that the term "bomb" was not used, nor used today.

But, as the author of the accepted answer says, the term "bomba" was widely used in the sense of "cool". And consider that the protagonist of "Mala Onda" is a young arrogant and cheesy, who splashes all his sentences with Anglicisms. So we must understand that "bomb" is a phrase of the character, with which the author tries to imitate and criticize the loss of the identity of a social group at that time.

(Sorry, I know my answer is late in 5 years.)