ACE ADJECTIVE (YOUTH CULTURE)

In young people's slang: great, fantastic, terrific. Etymology: The adjectival use has arisen from the noun ace, which essentially means 'number one'. History and Usage: As any reader of war comics will know, during the First World War outstanding pilots who had succeeded in bringing down ten or more enemy planes were known as aces; shortly after this, ace started to be used in American English to mean any outstanding person or thing, and by the middle of the century was often used with another noun following (as in 'an ace sportsman'). It was a short step from this attributive use to full adjectival status. In the eighties, ace was re-adopted by young people as a general term of approval, and this time round it was always used as an adjective ('that's really ace!') or adverbially ('ace!') as a kind of exclamation. With staff, everything becomes possible. And--ace and brill--they confer instant status on the employer at the same time. A double benefit: dead good and the apotheosis of yuppiedom. Daily Telegraph 12 July 1987, p. 21 The holiday was absolutely ace--loads of sailing and mountain walking, and even a night's camping in the hills. Balance (British Diabetic Association) Aug.-Sept. 1989, p. 45