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Über

Über (German pronunciation: [ˈyːbɐ] , sometimes written uber /ˈbər/[1] in English-language publications) is a German language word meaning "over", "above" or "across". It is an etymological twin with German ober, and is a cognate (through Proto-Germanic) with English over, Dutch over, Swedish över and Icelandic yfir, among other Germanic languages; it is a distant cognate to the Sanskrit word ūpari and Hindi ūpar (both meaning 'above', 'over' or 'up'), probably through Proto-Indo-European. The word is relatively well known within Anglophone communities due to its occasional use as a hyphenated prefix in informal English, usually for emphasis. The German word is properly spelled with an umlaut, while the spelling of the English loanword varies.

This article is about the German word. For the ridesharing service, see Uber. For other uses, see Uber (disambiguation).

In English[edit]

Origins[edit]

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 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 Superman", in which the mentally advanced superman (not to be confused with his later superhero character) is a villain. Shortly afterward, Siegel and artist Joseph Shuster recast Superman into the iconic American hero he subsequently became. It is through this association with the superhero that the term "über" carries much of its English sense implying irresistibility or invincibility.[2]

Metal umlaut

Uberfic

Clausing, Stephen. English Influence of American German and American Icelandic. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1986.

Stanforth, Anthony W. Deutsche Einflüsse auf den englischen Wortschatz in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1996.

Hock, Hans Heinrich, and Brian D. Joseph. Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996.

Burridge, Kate. Blooming English: Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids in the English Language. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Burridge, Kate. Weeds in the Garden of Words: Further Observations on the Tangled History of the English Language. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 2005.

Savan, Leslie. Slam dunks and No-Brainers: Language in your Life, Media, Business, Politics, and, like, Whatever. New York: Knopf, 2005.