Über
Encyclopedia
Ü
ber (sometimes spelled o
o
ber, u
e
ber, u
ber, the former being a correct form in German just like über; ˈyːbɐ) comes from the German language
. It has one umlaut. It is a cognate
of both Latin super and Greek ὑπέρ (hyper). It is also sometimes used as a hyphenated prefix in informal English, usually for emphasis.
Über may be a preposition or an adverb
depending on context. E.g. über etwas sprechen - to speak about something, über die Brücke - across the bridge.
Über also translates to over, above, meta
, 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 sung anymore, because it is mistaken as meaning "Germany above the rest of the world"; its original meaning was the German nation above its constituent states [Prussia, Hanover, Württemberg etc.]).
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
.
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
adopted 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 the Super-Man
", in which "Superman" is "an evil mastermind with advanced mental powers". Throughout the following decade, Siegel, and Joseph Shuster, 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.
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. In the kids' television show Animalia, Alex uses the word "uberly" a lot for emphasis.
The term was also used in an episode of Friends
(season 1, episode 5, "The One with the East German Laundry Detergent"), when Ross
tries to impress Rachel
by showing her that he uses a German laundry detergent called "Überweiss".
It was also used in season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) Turok-Han vampires (nicknamed the "ubervamps").They are a race of ancient powerful vampires stronger and fiercer than the regular vampires from the series, stated to be to vampires what Neanderthals are to humans.
In the Philippines, a reality show franchise called Pinoy Big Brother
has a segment show called Über that features extra scenes and discussions about the housemates and provides edited and comical footage.
This term is also used in the film Jason X, to describe Jason's upgraded form, "Über Jason".
Also used in the internet/tv show Pure Pwnage "Uber Micro".
for super
due to games and gamers excessively using the word; for example, 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.
In the real-time strategy game Supreme Commander
, experimental units are also known as "Uber units."
In the video game Team Fortress 2
, a playable class called the Medic has a healing gun that can deploy an Übercharge on a teammate which renders both temporarily invulnerable. One of his domination phrases is "I am the Übermensch
!".
In Diablo II
, a hidden sidequest contains the three devil-like bosses, Diablo, Mephisto and Baal, in a special, stronger form. They are often referred to by the Diablo community as "Über-Diablo", "Über-Mephisto" and "Über-Baal".
In the 2008 game Spore
, players may purchase an Uber Turret to defend their planets.
Also in the game "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", there is a powerful enemy known as 'Uber-Soldat', or 'Super-Soldier'. After killing the prototypes, agent Blazkowicz has to deal with the Uber-Soldat with the Tesla gun.
In Guitar Hero
games, custom songs made to be impossible can be called Uber Songs.
In Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
of PS1, the "Uber Score" is the most difficult score to achieve.
In Dragon Quest 9, the Uber Falcon Blade is an advanced form of the Falcon Blade.
In Toy Soldiers
, one of the bosses is a giant tank called the "Uber Tank".
In Dead Space 2
, chapter 14-15 has an unkillable enemy known as the "Ubermorph".
In Disgaea 2 for PS2, in a place of the game there's another dimension called Land of Carnage where instead of the Normal Dimension the enemy and NPC levels are boosted by 2000%, and have an additional 200 levels added on original level, alongside their stats being doubled are called with the term "Uber"
of the "ü" ('u
' with an umlaut
) when used in writing systems without diacritic
s (such as airport arrival boards, older computer systems, etc.) is "ue", not just "u". Because of different usage, the English language
version of the word is distinct from "über". It is not possible to translate every English "uber" back into "über": for example, the above-mentioned "uber-left" could not be translated into "Überlinke": a Germanophone would say "linksaußen" ("outside left").
A natural language 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.
Ü
Ü, or ü, is a character which can be either a letter from several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter U with an umlaut or a diaeresis...
ber (sometimes spelled o
O
O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a...
o
O
O is the fifteenth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.The letter was derived from the Semitic `Ayin , which represented a consonant, probably , the sound represented by the Arabic letter ع called `Ayn. This Semitic letter in its original form seems to have been inspired by a...
ber, u
U
U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....
e
E
E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:...
ber, u
U
U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....
ber, the former being a correct form in German just like über; ˈyːbɐ) comes from the German language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. It has one umlaut. It is a cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
of both Latin super and Greek ὑπέρ (hyper). 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 meters, "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
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
depending on context. E.g. über etwas sprechen - to speak about something, über die Brücke - across the bridge.
Über also translates to over, above, meta
Meta
Meta- , is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter....
, but mainly in compound words. The actual translation depends on context. One example would be Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
's term Übermensch
Übermensch
The Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
, 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 sung anymore, because it is mistaken as meaning "Germany above the rest of the world"; its original meaning was the German nation above its constituent states [Prussia, Hanover, Württemberg etc.]).
The German word unter, meaning beneath or under, is antonymous to über. Unter can be found in words such as Untermensch
Untermensch
Untermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians...
, U-Bahn (Untergrundbahn = subway), U-Boot
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
(Unterseeboot = submarine), as well as toponyms, such as Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden
Unter den Linden is a boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways....
.
Origins
The crossover of the term "über" from German into English goes back to the work of GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
. In 1883, Nietzsche coined the term "Übermensch
Übermensch
The Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
" to describe the higher state to which he felt men might aspire. The term was brought into English
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
by George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
in the title to his 1903 play Man and Superman
Man and Superman
Man and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act...
. During his rise to power, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
adopted Nietzsche's term, using it in his descriptions of an Aryan master race
Master race
Master race was a phrase and concept originating in the slave-holding Southern US. The later phrase Herrenvolk , interpreted as 'master race', was a concept in Nazi ideology in which the Nordic peoples, one of the branches of what in the late-19th and early-20th century was called the Aryan race,...
. It was in this context that American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Jewish comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
creator Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
encountered the term and conceived the 1933 story "The Reign of the Super-Man
The Reign of the Super-Man
"The Reign of the Superman" is a short story written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Joe Shuster. It was the first published use by the writer/artist duo of the character name Superman, which they later applied to their archetypal fictional superhero. The title character of this story is a...
", in which "Superman" is "an evil mastermind with advanced mental powers". Throughout the following decade, Siegel, and Joseph Shuster, recast Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
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.
Television
One of the first popular modern uses of the word as a synonym in English for super was a Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
TV sketch in 1979. The sketch, What if?, pondered the notion of what if the comic book hero Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
had landed in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
when he first came from Krypton
Krypton (comics)
Krypton is a fictional planet in the DC Comics universe, and the native world of the super-heroes Superman and, in some tellings, Supergirl and Krypto the Superdog. Krypton has been portrayed consistently as having been destroyed just after Superman's flight from the planet, with exact details of...
. Rather than being called Superman, he took the name of Überman. In the kids' television show Animalia, Alex uses the word "uberly" a lot for emphasis.
The term was also used in an episode of Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
(season 1, episode 5, "The One with the East German Laundry Detergent"), when Ross
Ross Geller
Ross Eustace Geller, Ph.D. is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television series Friends, portrayed by David Schwimmer. The character is noted for his geeky, lovable demeanor.- Origin :...
tries to impress Rachel
Rachel Green
Rachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Jennifer Aniston. Aniston received an Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe for her performances.-Background:...
by showing her that he uses a German laundry detergent called "Überweiss".
It was also used in season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series) Turok-Han vampires (nicknamed the "ubervamps").They are a race of ancient powerful vampires stronger and fiercer than the regular vampires from the series, stated to be to vampires what Neanderthals are to humans.
In the Philippines, a reality show franchise called Pinoy Big Brother
Pinoy Big Brother
Pinoy Big Brother is the Philippine version of the reality television show Big Brother . It follows the same premise as its many foreign counterparts around the world: twelve Philippine residents are forced to live with each other inside a house for about 3 months or at least 100 days...
has a segment show called Über that features extra scenes and discussions about the housemates and provides edited and comical footage.
This term is also used in the film Jason X, to describe Jason's upgraded form, "Über Jason".
Also used in the internet/tv show Pure Pwnage "Uber Micro".
Video games
During the 2000s, über also became known as a synonymSynonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
for super
Super
Super may refer to:* Super, a supernumerary actor on the stage, which is the equivalent of an "extra" in motion pictures and television.* Super, a building superintendent; a manager, maintenance or repair person, custodian or janitor, especially in the United States.* Super, a grade of gasoline*...
due to games and gamers excessively using the word; for example, in the game SSX Tricky
SSX Tricky
A soundtrack was released in 2002. It features the following songs:#"It's Tricky " - Run-D.M.C.#"Smartbomb " - BT#"Finished Symphony" - Hybrid#"King of the Beats" - Aphrodite#"Board Burner" - Mix Master Mike...
, a tricky move is also known as an über-trick.
In the video game Halo Wars
Halo Wars
Halo Wars is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was released in Japan and Australia on February 26, 2009, in PAL territories on February 27, and in North America on March 3...
, the flying unit vulture and the ground unit scarab are known as uber units.
In the real-time strategy game Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander (video game)
Supreme Commander is a real-time strategy computer game designed by Chris Taylor and developed by his company, Gas Powered Games. The game is considered to be a spiritual successor to Taylor's 1997 game Total Annihilation,, alongside the Spring remake...
, experimental units are also known as "Uber units."
In the video game Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
, a playable class called the Medic has a healing gun that can deploy an Übercharge on a teammate which renders both temporarily invulnerable. One of his domination phrases is "I am the Übermensch
Übermensch
The Übermensch is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
!".
In Diablo II
Diablo II
Diablo II is a dark fantasy/horror-themed hack and slash, with elements of the role playing game and dungeon crawl genres. It was released for Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment, and was developed by Blizzard North. It is a direct sequel to the 1996 hit PC game, Diablo.Diablo II...
, a hidden sidequest contains the three devil-like bosses, Diablo, Mephisto and Baal, in a special, stronger form. They are often referred to by the Diablo community as "Über-Diablo", "Über-Mephisto" and "Über-Baal".
In the 2008 game Spore
Spore (2008 video game)
Spore is a multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore...
, players may purchase an Uber Turret to defend their planets.
Also in the game "Return to Castle Wolfenstein", there is a powerful enemy known as 'Uber-Soldat', or 'Super-Soldier'. After killing the prototypes, agent Blazkowicz has to deal with the Uber-Soldat with the Tesla gun.
In Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in...
games, custom songs made to be impossible can be called Uber Songs.
In Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4
-External links:* on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine...
of PS1, the "Uber Score" is the most difficult score to achieve.
In Dragon Quest 9, the Uber Falcon Blade is an advanced form of the Falcon Blade.
In Toy Soldiers
Toy Soldiers
A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier, but the term may also refer to:In film and television:*Toy Soldiers , an action/drama film in which terrorists take a school hostage...
, one of the bosses is a giant tank called the "Uber Tank".
In Dead Space 2
Dead Space 2
Dead Space 2 is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is the sequel to Dead Space. Unlike its predecessor, Dead Space 2 has a multiplayer mode. A Collector's Edition is...
, chapter 14-15 has an unkillable enemy known as the "Ubermorph".
In Disgaea 2 for PS2, in a place of the game there's another dimension called Land of Carnage where instead of the Normal Dimension the enemy and NPC levels are boosted by 2000%, and have an additional 200 levels added on original level, alongside their stats being doubled are called with the term "Uber"
Spelling
The normal transliterationTransliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
of the "ü" ('u
U
U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details....
' with an umlaut
Umlaut (diacritic)
The diaeresis and the umlaut are diacritics that consist of two dots placed over a letter, most commonly a vowel. When that letter is an i or a j, the diacritic replaces the tittle: ï....
) when used in writing systems without diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s (such as airport arrival boards, older computer systems, etc.) is "ue", not just "u". Because of different usage, the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
version of the word is distinct from "über". It is not possible to translate every English "uber" back into "über": for example, the above-mentioned "uber-left" could not be translated into "Überlinke": a Germanophone would say "linksaußen" ("outside left").
A natural language is defined by common use of words
Descriptive linguistics
In the study of language, description, or descriptive linguistics, is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is spoken by a group of people in a speech community...
, which dictionaries and academia record, not the reverse
Linguistic prescription
In linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
. The use of "ü", "u", and "ue" in the word is an emerging trend in common usage in English with no clear consensus.