BRILLIANT ADJECTIVE (YOUTH CULTURE)

In young people's slang: great, fantastic, really good. Often abbreviated to brill. Etymology: A weakening of the original meaning (in much the same way as great, fantastic, etc. had been weakened by earlier generations of young people), followed in the case of brill by clipping of the ending (like the earlier fab etc.) History and Usage: Although the literal meaning of brilliant is 'shining brightly', the adjective had been used figuratively for two centuries and more before being taken up as a cult word by young people; these earlier figurative uses often described some kind of spectacle, or a person with abnormal talents. From about the end of the 1970s, though, brilliant began to be used to express approval of just about anything. When used in this way, it is sometimes pronounced as a three-syllable word with the primary stress shifted to the final syllable: /--/. Brill appeared in the early eighties. Both are considered a little dated by the very young, but they still seem to be going strong in comics and children's television programmes. I allowed Pandora to visit me in my darkened bedroom. We had a brilliant kissing session. Sue Townsend The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984), p. 15 I think your magazine is brill. Music Making July 1987, p. 11