Reader question: "He's a class act." What does that mean?
My comments: It means he's an excellent person. How excellent? That depends on context.
A person who's seen by others as a "class act" usually demonstrates some unique good qualities and those qualities are found in context. That is, a sentence like "he's a class act" seldom stands on its own. It must be followed or preceded by explanations.
Yes, and that's the good part of the English language. English, you see, is explanatory, sentences explain each other. While a sentence like "he's a rascal" can perfectly stand on its own footing in Chinese conversations (with no explanation given about that person's rascal behavior), it can never stand alone in English, that is, without risking sounding like an ass. In Chinese, of course, if you give only conclusions and never explain what you mean by what you say, rather than diminishing your credibility, this practice might even give you an extra aura of profundity.
Joking aside, "class act" is an American idiom pointing to somebody possessing some outstanding qualities. Do you notice the "class" distinction in it? Somebody who's described as a "class act" often shows "class" (style). He is probably "in a class of his own" (peerless) and "a hard act to follow" (inimitable), using other American idioms.
Without further ado, let's examine some of the qualities of "a class act" through context (explanations following each example, in brackets, are mine):
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