Über
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Über (German pronunciation: varies.
In German
In German, über is a preposition, as well as being used as a
- elevation: "überdacht" - roof-covered, roofed, [also: reconsidered, thought over] (überdacht (from Dach (roof)) means roof-covered, roofed while überdacht (from the strong verb denken-[dachte, gedacht] (think, thought, thought) means reconsidered, thought over)
- quantity: "über 100 Meter" - more than 100 meters, "Überschall" - supersonic
- superiority: "überlegen" - (adj) superior, elite, predominant. (verb) to think something over
- excess: "übertreiben" - to exaggerate, "überfüllt" - overcrowded)
As a
Über also translates to over, above,
The German word unter, meaning beneath or under, is
Grammatically, über belongs to that set of German prepositions that can govern either the accusative case or the dative case ("an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen"). The choice is determined by whether the prepositional phrase indicates movement (accusative) or an unmoving state (dative).
In English
Origins
The crossover of the term "über" from German into English goes back to the work of
Differences from the German
Spelling
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".
Meaning
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, "uber-left" could not be translated into "Überlinks": a Germanophone would say "linksaußen" (literally "outer left", meaning a left-winger in either sports or politics).
See also
References
- ^ "Define Uber". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2015-01-23.
- ^ "The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition: "Superman" definition, "Word History" entry". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. 2010. Retrieved Mar 14, 2011.
Further reading
- 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.