Über or ueber ( ) comes from the German language. It is a cognate of both Latin super and Greek ὑπέρ (hyper), as well as English over and above. It is also sometimes used as a hyphenated prefix in informal English, usually for emphasis.

The term in German

In German, über is used as a prefix as well as a word in its own right. Both uses indicate a state or action involving increased elevation or quantity in the physical sense, or superiority or excess in the abstract.

elevation: "überdacht" - roof-covered, roofed, [also: reconsidered, thought over]

quantity: "über 100 Meter" - more than 100 meter, "Überschall" - supersonic

superiority: "überlegen" - (adj) superior, elite, predominant. (verb) to consider

excess: "übertreiben" - to exaggerate, "überfüllt" - overcrowded

Über may be a preposition or an adverb depending on context. Eg. über etwas sprechen - to speak about something, über die Brücke - across the bridge.

Über also translates to over, above, meta and super, but mainly in compound words. The actual translation depends on context. One example would be Nietzsche's term Übermensch, discussed below; another example is the Deutschlandlied, which begins with the well-known words "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" meaning "Germany, Germany above everything". This strophe is not part of the national anthem.

The German word unter, meaning beneath or under, is antonymous to über. Unter can be found in words such as Untermensch, U-Bahn (Untergrundbahn = subway), U-Boot (Unterseeboot = submarine), as well as toponyms, such as Unter den Linden.

The term in English

Origins

The crossover of the term "über" from German into English goes back to the work of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In 1883, Nietzsche coined the term "übermensch" to describe the higher state to which he felt men might aspire. The term was brought into English by George Bernard Shaw in the title to his 1903 play Man and Superman. During his rise to power, Adolf Hitler bastardized Nietzsche's term, using it in his descriptions of an Aryan master race. It was in this context that American Jewish comic book creator Jerry Siegel encountered the term and conceived the 1933 story "The Reign of Superman," in which "Superman" is "an evil mastermind with advanced mental powers". Throughout the following decade, Seigel recast Superman into the iconic American hero he subsequently became. It is through this association with Superman the hero that the term "über" carries much of its English sense implying irresistibility or invincibility.

Current popular culture

Television

One of the first popular modern uses of the word as a synonym in English for super was a Saturday Night Live TV sketch in 1979. The sketch, What if?, pondered the notion of what if the comic book hero Superman had landed in Nazi Germany when he first came from Krypton. Rather than being called Superman, he took the name of Überman.

Video games

During the 2000s, über also became known as a synonym for super due to gamers excessively using the word incorrectly; for example, in the game Team Fortress 2, the medigun's über-charge literally means "super-charge" and in the game SSX Tricky, a tricky move is also known as an über-trick.

in the video game Halo Wars, the flying unit vulture, and the ground unit scarab are known as uber units

Differences from the German

Spelling

The normal transliteration of the "ü" ('u' as an Umlaut) when used in writing systems without diacritics (such as airport arrival boards, older computer systems, etc.) is "ue", not just "u"; however, it could be argued that the English language use of the word uber is a new word distinct from ueber. This is because English is defined by common use of words, which dictionaries and academia record, not the reverse. The use of 'ü', 'u', and 'ue' in the word is an emerging trend in common usage in English with no clear consensus.

Usage

An English expression like "über-cool" sounds rather awkward to the ears of a German, although it is commonly used in Switzerland. They would rather use "obercool", where "ober" means "upper", "higher" or "superior". For example the German word for "first lieutenant" is "Oberleutnant" (as opposed to just "Leutnant" for "second lieutenant").

See also

• Uberfic

References

1. Jewish Virtual Library
2. What If?, Saturday Night Live Transcripts, Retrieved 2007-11-16

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