"Oprah is so über rich!"
"Those boots are über-hot!"
"My car is über fast, not to mention über sleek."
"What an über-difficult exam that was!"
"Those boots are über-hot!"
"My car is über fast, not to mention über sleek."
"What an über-difficult exam that was!"
Outside of Germany, the word "über" has been used more than enough
times in the media and by teenagers, young adults and those wanting to be part
of the hip and in crowd. What does the word über mean and where did it come
from?
Über is a loanword from the German language. It is both a prefix and a
word in its own right. The letter "u" has an umlaut (two dots above
the letter) when spelled. As a loanword in English, über is most often used to
emphasize something, to say that something is big, superior or over the top,
among other things. It über denotes an increase in quantity or elevation. Über
can also mean elite, superior, predominant, over, and something in excess. The
actual meaning of the word über will always depend on the context in which the
word is used. It is a widely used
loanword in pop culture that is sometimes spelled in English as
"uber" or "ueber" and appended to a word either with or
without a dash.
Über's
entrance into the English language
Credit is often given to Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher, for
the introduction of the German term über into popular culture. Nietzsche used
the word "Übermensch" in one of his philosophical writings in order
to describe the more elevated state of being that men should aspire for in
life. This was back in 1883. English playwright George Bernard Shaw, imported
the term via his play Man and Superman (1903); the word "superman"
being used at times as a translation for Nietzsche's "Übermensch."
Adolf Hitler was said to have used Nietzsche's "Übermensch" to
describe the Aryan master race. Jewish American Jerry Siegel, a comic book
creator, picked up the term and used it in "The Reign of the Super-Man,"
a short story he wrote in 1933. In Siegel's story, Superman was not yet a
champion of good but an evil mastermind." Joseph Shuster, the man who
illustrated Siegel's short story, worked with Siegel to revamp the Superman
character. Finally, in June1938, the superhero Superman made his first
appearance in Action Comics as a champion for peace and justice.
One Internet source attributes the entrance of über into the English
language to a punk band in the 80s called Dead Kennedys. One of their songs is entitled
"California Uber Alles." Another source credits the television series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer with popularizing the word über among the younger
generation. The title character of the series, Buffy, together with her
friends, had to fight Turok-Han vampires, nicknamed übervamps, in the final
last season of the widely popular series. Print media outside of Germany have
been using the word über for many years. Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stones and various
fashion magazines have at one time or another used über in their articles. It
was not uncommon to hear media-hungry American celebrity wannabes spewing über
once in a while.
Is über über
used?
The word über has evolved in its usage beyond Nietzsche's original
intention. Unfortunately, borrowed words more often than not do not retain
their subtleties when used within another language. The original word's real
purpose is not fulfilled when transported to a different language.
From movies to television to newspapers and magazines, when people want
to refer to something of great quantity, superiority or excess, they would at
times use the word über. Some like to use the word über in place of the word
super, hyper or mega. Constant use of über can become irritating. For example,
hearing teens and young adults saying something is "über hot," "über
fun," or "über cute" annoy a lot of people who believe that
there are better words in the English language to use instead of the German über.
In fact, in 2005, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) included über in
its Banished
Words List for that year. Every year since 1976, LSSU comes out with a List
of Banished Words. The words that make it to this infamous list are words that
have been overused in media and elsewhere. People have been voting for the
banishment of über for many years already. But it was only in 2005 that the
German import landed on the Banished Words List. It seemed that people were
just over the whole "replace all words synonymous to super, big, superior,
and amazing with über."
Other German
loanwords
Über is not the only German word that has crept into the English
language. There are others that you may be using without knowing that it is
part of the language from Deutschland.
Why borrow words? For the simple reason that some words in one language
do not have an exact translation in another language. English borrows a lot of
words from different languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and
Japanese. English, which is a Germanic language, borrowed quite a number of
German words, mostly nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Some of the loanwords from the German language used in English
communication today are:
Angst - anxiety or deep
fear within one's self
Blitzkrieg - "lightning
war" is the literal translation but used to mean fast strategy or swift
offensive in English
Bratwurst - type of sausage
Delikatessen - shop selling
prepared or ready-to-eat foods
Doppelgänger - a look-alike of
another person
Frankfurter - another type of sausage
Gestalt - literally means "shape
or form" but the word is used in psychology as well as philosophy to refer
to wholeness as a result of individual concepts coming together
Gesundheit - translated as "health"
but used instead of the phrase "bless you!" after a person sneezes
Kaputt - means broken
Kitsch - describes an
item that is gaudy, cheap or sentimental
Kindergarten - translation is "children
garden" but used in English to refer to a place or educational institution
where young children begin their education
Poltergeist - a ghost that is
noisy and disruptive ghost
Pretzel - salty food made
from baked dough
Sauerkraut - a boiled cabbage
dish
Wanderlust - a person's
yearning to go places or travel
Zeitgeist - literal
translation is "time ghost" but is used in English to describe the
prevailing political and cultural trends of a particular time in history
These are but a few of the borrowed words from the German language.
Borrowing words will continue to be the norm especially as the world grows
smaller and smaller due to globalization and the Internet. Know which words in
your language are borrowed and learn how to use them properly. That way, you
neither misuse words nor über use them.
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