Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US campus) excellent, worthy of admiration.

1824		R.B. Peake Life of an Actor II v: Sir Capias Gooseberry – oh, brilliant luck!
1838		J. Grant Sketches in London 162: One of them [penny theatre] [...] is usually filled in every part; or as the proprietors say is honoured with ‘brilliant and overflowing audiences’.
1860		Green Mountain Freeman (Montpelier, VT) 2 Feb. 1/2: Brilliant! Splendiferous!
1867		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Mar. 5/2: Brilliant exchanges [...] the pair evidently meaning business.
1907		C. Fowler letter 3 Jan. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 193: [N]early all of the Naval and Marine Officers stationed here were present with their wives. It was quite a ‘brilliant’ affair—for Olongapo .
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 134: It’s going to be brilliant here tonight, absolutely brrrrilliant [...] My God why doesn’t everybody just live for love? That’s all there is, baby. And out of bed you have to be simply brillllllliant.
1969		J. Hibberd Dimboola (2000) 78: bayonet: There was once a Reverend parson / Loved by all in the parish of Karson / However his love for a boy in the choir / Grew to an uncontrollable fire, / And led to the abominable crime of arson. mutton: Brilliant!
1971		I. Faust Willy Remembers 156: ‘He’s a bright man.’ ‘Bright bullshit. He’s brilliant.’.
1973		(con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 78: Big Sheila stepped oot an’ in a dead sexy voice said tae him: ‘You’ve goat lovely come-tae-bed eyes’. Brilliant it wis.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 70: The boy called Nigel said, ‘American schools are brilliant at sports.’.
1990		R. Doyle Snapper 31: A woman singin’ Moll-ee My Irish Moll-ee, or somethin’. Miss O’Keefe thinks it’s brilliant but it’s thick.
1998		K. Sampson Awaydays 24: Dink about it, Paul, lad. How many rarely brilliant times have yeah had in yeah life?
2000		Guardian G2 24 Jan. 2: Yeah, I’m brilliant.