- Used most commonly by members in the GSRM community. Used in colloquial, informal settings. Was created as a shorthand for asexual, limiting the time requisite for typing it out. Orally, “ace” shortens “asexual” to one succinct syllable.
Ace (2)
clipping; adjective
A sexual orientation in which the person does not feel the desire for physical relations. An asexual person maybe romantic or aromantic. Asexuality is a spectrum; for example, some members are grey asexual, meaning they only experience the desire rarely.
Etymology : “Ace” is a clipping of “asexual”. The spelling likely changed due to there being a pre-existing homophone “ace”, referring to a type of card or someone adept at something. “Asexual” and “ace” sound phonetically similar at the beginning, and this is likely the cause of the decision-making behind the clipping and its spelling, though the word “asexual” is parsed differently. “Asexual” is a word that was created from Latin morphemes “a”, meaning “not”, and “sexual”. “Ace” can sometimes be compounded with “Aro”, usually separated by a slash, making “Aro/Ace”. “Aro” is a clipping of “aromantic”. “Aro/Ace” refers to a subset of the members of the asexual community that experiences neither physical nor romantic desires.
Source : “all my characters [can] be canonically ace” 11/6/2019 Context: Discussion with friend about portrayal of relationships in stories
Last modified: 19 December 2019