Über
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Über (German pronunciation ) comes from the German language. It is a cognate of both Latin super and Greek ὑπέρ (hyper), as well as English over (as in "overkill"). During the 2000s, über also became known as a synonym for super due to gamers' excessively using the word incorrectly; e.g. über-bright = "super bright," generally with a slightly intensified meaning. Über is commonly written as uber in English, though with slightly different meaning.
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 Uberman.[1]
An expression like "über cool" sounds rather awkward in the ears of a German. 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").
The normal transliteration of the "ü" ('u' with 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.
[edit] Usage in video-game culture
The word über in gaming means, super, very, powerful, or way too.[2] This word could have originated from the german word.[2] Uber could have also originated from the Yiddish word Uberchuchem, which means way too smart. Today the word uber is often used by gamers eg. "that attack was über powerful", which means, "that was (super/ very/ way too) powerful".[citation needed] Another example is, "That attack was über, dude", meaning, "that attack was (super/powerful), dude". Other gaming words identified as overused are Pwn,[3] noob,[4] and epic.[5]
Another use is among the Internet community, which probably emerged from the video-game culture, as in "uber drawing skills" as a form of sarcasm.
[edit] Uses in German
In German, über is used as a prefix as well as a separate word. In the latter case, it may be a preposition or an adverb depending on context. Eg. über etwas sprechen - speak about something, über die Brücke - over the bridge, übernehmen - take over (nehmen = take).
Über also translates to over, above, meta and "super", but mainly in compound words. The actual translation depends on context. One example would be the term Übermensch from Friedrich Nietzsche, which translates to super human or superman (literally "overhuman"). It is assumed that it is via this translation that the word über entered the English vocabulary (cf. calque). Another example is the Deutschlandlied, which begins with the well-known words "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" (Germany, Germany above all).
In German online slang it can also be used with the same meaning as the English usages of "uber" by gamers.[citation needed] In this case, it is typically written without the umlaut—despite the ready availability and familiarity of the 'ü' character—in part to distinguish it from its original meaning.[citation needed] Linguistically speaking, a language can borrow a loanword that it already loaned out, as long as the meaning has changed sufficiently. In the most cases of this usage, it is borrowed directly as Denglisch, or an English word/phrase that has been fitted adhoc into the German language. In Hindi and other related languages of India, a word of the same origin, 'üper' means 'up' or 'upper'.
Über contrasts in German with the word Unter, meaning "Under". "Unter" can be found in words such as Untermensch, U-Bahn (Untergrundbahn = subway), U-Boot (Unterseeboot = submarine), etc., as well as many toponyms, such as Unter den Linden.
