While we're on the subject, I may have a new viewpoint on the whole USSJ/Ascended Saiyan/SSJ 2 slant, as the series is going through that point where I live.
Andriod Saga Spoilers
Basically, everyone: Future Trunks, Master Roshi, etc. where amazed at the thought of a level beyond Super Saiyan and were like "is that possible?" and "I never even thought to consider that."
Meanwhile, Vegeta had thought that perhaps there was a level beyond SSJ. So he was like "I will ascend." And later Goku got up from the virus and was also thinking about a level beyond SSJ. Basically after that people were talking about training to ascend, Piccolo's like "if they can't train & ascend we're done for", yadda yadda.
So ascend was basically a buzz word relating to pushing yourself to some level beyond a SSJ, needed because no one had before even considered that possible.