Talk:Über

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From VfD Delete - dict def. Burgundavia 20:54, May 20, 2004 (UTC) - Keep - I like the new addition to the page, makes it more than a dict def. Burgundavia 21:40, May 20, 2004 (UTC)

  • Delete and merge with Internet slang, perhaps? DO'Neil 21:15, 20 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]
  • Even with the additions about usage, this is detail that would be better covered in Wiktionary. Current article is an orphan. I do not see obvious connections to other articles. Rossami 21:47, 20 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep, I think it's worthy. --Starx 05:05, 21 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep the updated version. - jredmond 15:56, 21 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]
  • I would delete, personally -- this is wiktionary stuff. Adam Conover 22:16, May 22, 2004 (UTC)
  • Keep - online gaming term of growing use and note - Tεxτurε 02:39, 24 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep, though it needs work - David Gerard 08:10, May 25, 2004 (UTC)

Vote Ended - Consensus was to keep this article. Rossami 22:31, 26 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]


übercool[edit]

What of the common use for "über" in to mean to the highest degree or above all using the original German meaning?

hey i'm from germany and we don't say übercool but obercool.Smell Ur Maw.
thats in english overcool. ober = over --Bronko
I'm from germany as well. I would translate ober with upper, and über with above. I have heared both übercool and obercool before, but would say that obercool is more common. It is almost exclusively used by teenagers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Phalphalak (talkcontribs) 01:46, 9 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
"An expression like "über cool" sounds rather awkward in the ears of a German. " Hi, I'm from the south-west of Germany (Baden) and I use "übercool" more often than "obercool" and it doesn't sound awkward to the germans here. Seems like it's a regional thing. But I have to confirm that it's a teenager term. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.179.61.141 (talk) 17:13, 13 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also Uber is commonly known around the world a great and powerful Counterstrike player whose deadly dance of deat with his p90 is known as a thing of beauty —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.202.146.11 (talk) 21:20, 17 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also "cool" originates from English language and every compound noun - which we have a lot of here in Germany - is a somewhat modern word. 79.199.105.158 (talk) 16:22, 22 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

N.B.?[edit]

What does "NB:" stand for? - Tεxτurε 23:52, 26 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

N.B. = nota bene meaning "note it well" or "important note" Rossami 14:18, 27 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Last comment is dodgy[edit]

...there doesn't appear to be a Nazi connection (except for the fact that über is a loanword from German).

German does not equal Nazi, so is the comment in brackets really necessary?

No, it is not necessary. -Seth Mahoney 04:30, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)
There is an entire generation (of Americans, at least) who still hear über with Nazi connotations (perhaps buried subconciously). This might be worth mentioning, if anyone can find a valid source for it (other than, "it has been Aranel's impression that..."). -Aranel ("Sarah") 22:51, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

It doesn't imply that Germans equal Nazis, but it might be reworded. In my opinion, it is valid to note that both Nazism and the word 'über' have German origins.

I wholly disagree with the above comment. Why is it valid to note that Nazism also has German origins in this article? It's completely irrelevant; similar to relating the word "Kindergarten" to Nazism. T. J. Day 14:19, 26 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, there is somewhat of a connection to Nazism in that Uber is the opposite of Unter, which is used in the English world primarily in "Untermenschen". But I personally don't see the point in including that thurr.

"Uber-cracking"[edit]

I removed this:

Another word that Über is said to have come from is uber-cracking, but this theory has been proved wrong. The word uber-cracking comes from the german word..........

I'm not aware of any such "theory" and it's probably just something the author thought. Since "cracking" is not German, it stands to reason "uber" didn't come from it. 82.92.119.11 20:31, 15 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Paragraph switching[edit]

I switched paragraphs so that the Pokemon reference comes second under the heading, rather than first. I thought it rather strange that it should head up the section, given its confinement to the Pokemon fanbase. --163.1.137.58 21:25, 7 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ubers in the Pokemon RPGs[edit]

As far as I know, Blissey and the trios aren't uber Pokemon. TZMT (de:T 14:59, 17 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, and like the article said, that is disputed, you don't consider them to be uber, but many do.Fro Man 06:41, 2 June 2006 (UTC) Fro Man[reply]

Übericon[edit]

What about a bit about the famed Übericon? JayKeaton 04:36, 8 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A Lock may be in order, as I have just deleted yet more innapropriate comments. jefftheworld 03:39, November 2, 2006 (UTC)

Über as Wikipedia search term...[edit]

I just did a quick search on the term "über". Roughly the first four search pages, at 20 results pp. have "über" in the article title (locations, academic papers, concepts, etc.). Then there were some 2000 results with the word in the article itself.
My question is whether it is possible to pull up a pure list of articles with "über" in at least one version of the article title (excluding something like Überarschloch, I suppose), for inclusion, either in "see also", or in the "Use in German" section. samwaltz 22:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"uber" used by Germans[edit]

I'd like to point out that this whole paragraph:

"In German online slang it can also be used with the same meaning as the English usages of "uber" by gamers. 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. Linguistically speaking, it's interesting to note that a language can borrow a loan word 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."

is wrong. I never heard any German "readopt" the word "uber/über" from the English slang term. --195.14.223.11 22:03, 31 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm German and I can say, that the most of our gamers use a kind of Denglish in their communication. The word über is normally used to talk about directions. This goes for the gamercommunity also as for the average German. "geh' über die Brücke" is similar to "go over the bridge". In German the relation to comparatives is mostly not used anymore. I think in english speaking countries it's only some kind of popcultural thing so as many people in Germany use english words in their sentences to make them sound more interesting or reliable. -89.48.228.56 20:50, 8 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm german too and I would like to add that "über" is not only used in it's original meaning but also in the readopted meaning. Though it might be mostly ironical most gamers I know use "uber" form time to time to refer to something special (like in the article: skill, equipment, and so on).

I just switched "when transliterated from German" to something along the lines of "when transliterated intowriting systems without diacritics". French, and other languages using the written symbol ü don't transliterate it when borrowing the term; Germans, however, occasionally use "ue", in cases like Airports/Train Stations, where Munich (München) is occasionally referred to as "Muenchen", as they know that quite a number of people travelling there don't have an "ü", additionally, a lot of the older computers available in Germany didn't have it either. . samwaltz 17:47, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This is pure trivia[edit]

The only real content is the first part of the article.. that says that "uber" is a synonym for "super". And it isn't. Also, the examples aren't serious: "overkill" "überleet". Then, the "uses" section is 100% trivia, or as some people call it "pop culture". And that's preety useless... --200.5.242.52 21:38, 22 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Trivia and pop culture (see any page with "in pop culture" at the end) have relevance if there is a level of notoriety, which this does. Under your logic the entire page on leet speak should be deleted. If you want that buy a copy of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Virtually all "in popular culture" sections in Wikipedia articles should be deleted, as "in popular culture" is being blatantly used as a euphemism for "trivia". Attempting to ascend to the level of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is, in fact, a valid goal for Wikipedia, but it doesn't seem likely to occur any time soon. We can still work in that direction. I don't know what "leet" is, but there are Wikipedia articles the subject of which might be considered trivial in the general scheme of things, and in these articles references to things that are trivial in relation to the subject, tangential, should be deleted. That's different from deleting the entire articles. Anyway, it is reasonable for this article to say something about how uber is used in English, but as the article currently stands it is verging into trivia and does need to be pruned. I wouldn't call it "pure trivia", however. TheScotch (talk) 11:22, 11 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Amerikan spelin ish difrant, eh[edit]

Knowing German might help to reach a consensus on the correct transliteration, that is ä becomes ae, ö -> oe and ü -> ue. The following examples illustrate that the use of "uber" is more likely associated with a lack of education than a German word. No native German speaker would ever use "uber".

spät/spaet - late, Spat - parallelepiped
schön/schoen - nice, schon - yet
Düssel/Duessel - Name of a creek in Germany through Düsseldorf, Dussel - dimwit
führe/fuehre - lead, Fuhre - cartload
Schüssel/Schuessel - dish, Schussel - fidget —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.82.176.72 (talkcontribs)

Can we please keep that OUT of the main article. Yes, it's clear that there's the character ü, which is quite uncomon in English. However, as soon as any interested reader sees that there are pages for u, umlaut and diaresis, s/he will pop over there for more information. The spelling of Düsseldorf is irrelevant to the article. One SHORT paragraph should suffice here. samwaltz 06:07, 21 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
No, all examples are relevant. They illustrate clearly that the transliteration of "ü" is "ue", not "u". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.82.176.72 (talkcontribs)

I totally agree with Sam. Sorry, no consensus to include that fluff. It seems written expressly to prove how ignorant English speakers are. Plus you don't even know how to sign your posts. pschemp | talk 23:44, 29 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I concur with most comments here. The entire article is NONSENSE. The best thing that could happen to the article is a speedy deletion, and I will be more than happy to sign that.

Even Un-gamers use this word[edit]

I have encountered people who use this word that aren't anywhere close to gamers. What is the slang meaning to the word the article isn't really clear? 67.163.33.214 01:41, 9 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Pokemon[edit]

I don't think the Pokemon reference is notable enough for the first paragraph. I also am not sure if this is as much of a "gamer" thing as the article emphasizes. I know that many Wikipedia editors are gamers so that may be a slightly skewed point of view. 71.11.215.216 (talk) 01:48, 16 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]


I agree to an extent. The Pokemon reference doesn't belong there. I'm sure it's notable in the sense that Pokemon is so popular and easily recognizable, but it's not serving any purpose within the context of the article other than as an example. An example really isn't necessary, and even if other editors think it is necessary, in it's current form it's way too long and has too much irrelevant information.

It is a pretty big "gamer" thing, but I've heard it used in other social circles. My sister's High School friends all know what it means and many people use it casually or ironically. Also, I don't think there's a college student out there that doesn't know what "uber" means, especially in modern day non-German context. But, by far, the most prevalent place for it is in competitive games. Flypanam (talk) 23:18, 2 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

homosexual condom[edit]

wtf? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.31.58.12 (talk) 20:18, 4 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Usage in video-game culture + references[edit]

I just don't feel this section is adding anything new. It is basically reiterating what is already discussed in the main introduction. Compare...

This section: "The word über in gaming means, super, very, powerful, or way too. This word could have originated from the german word." The introduction: "Über comes from the German language ... 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."

I'm just not seeing any real value to this short section. It seems best to integrate it into the main body of the article. The examples given are also poorly structured: "that was (super/ very/ way too) powerful" makes for awkward reading. Furthermore, the last sentence linking to a number of "overused" (which is subjective in itself) terms seems irrelevant. And on that note, I notice that references have been added to justify their overusage. Is a number of people posting on a gamespot forum really a reliable source for the "overuse" of the word noob? What about the blog used for the epic reference? Thoughts? Tsumaru (talk) 04:52, 15 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

rewrite[edit]

This article seems very chaotic and unclear. I'm proposing a complete rewrite. Since i'm both German and familiar with the term, i could perform this task myself, if nobody else volunteers. --mafutrct (talk) 17:01, 16 August 2008 (UTC) Since i got no feedback and lack time these days, i withdraw my offer. --mafutrct (talk) 16:06, 10 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions about specific changes are more helpful.TheScotch (talk) 11:23, 11 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

mistranslation?[edit]

Permit me to question the Brandenburghistorica.com reading, which is pretty much on display here...

'Another example is the Deutschlandlied, which begins with the well-known words "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" meaning "Germany, Germany above everything" (It is a common misunderstanding that this is in reference to conquest or subjugation - in fact, the words were intended to call all the different Germanic states to unity, to place being German above their local disputes[2]. Because of this mistranslation, the German national anthem now uses only the third verse.)'

...neither this nor the cited source quotes what I think is entire phrase found in the "ueber alles" verse -- "ueber alles in der Welt" doesn't seem to me to refer only to placing Germany over local principalities or regions -- but I am not a native speaker. I'd welcome a native reader's objective review of what that phrase would have actually meant to a native speaker of German in the period 1841-1945, especially given the presence of a leader with the title of "Kaiser".

It might still only mean "Germany is more important than anything else in the world" rather than "Germany ought to rule over every part of the world", but the omission of the "...in der Welt" portion of the lyrics seems oddly convenient / simplifying.

I realize this is one of many sensitive subjects; in summary, it is not clear to me if the "mistranslation" commentary text belongs here at all.

Apologies, I don't have a login yet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.18.162.123 (talk) 00:45, 23 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It should be removed. The problem is not the word 'über', but the fact that there is no verb, so it has nothing to do with this article. The explanation for the line belongs into the Deutschlandlied article and can be found there. Blutkoete (talk) 14:38, 12 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Use in Switzerland[edit]

"An English expression like "über-cool" sounds rather awkward to the ears of a German, although it is commonly used in Switzerland."

The last part is wrong. "über-cool" is definitely not commonly used in German-speaking Switzerland. I've never heard it from a native speaker in an everyday situation, not even amongst young people! 144.85.157.22 (talk) 03:22, 26 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]


uber-left[edit]

Hi, just dropped in to say that the "above mentioned 'uber-left' is in fact, not mentioned above, and that I (as a germanophone) would say "die Ultra-linke(n) if it is ment politically".. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.145.39.154 (talk) 16:16, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]


Dead Kennedys[edit]

While I am a big Dead Kennedys fan I don't think just mentioning that they have a song called "California Über Alles" is very relevant to this article, and certainly doesn't belong in the place where it's mentioned. That section is a discussion of the use of "über" *in English* which is not the case with the DK song. This reference should really go in the Deutschlandlied article. Danfeder (talk) 12:13, 26 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Forbidden strophes of the "Deutschlandlied" (which is also known as Germanys national anthem)[edit]

I'm not a historian, but I wouldn't say, that "Germany, Germany above everything" can be quote "mistaken as meaning 'Germany above the rest of the world'", because the very next line in the strophe says "Über alles in der Welt", meaning "Over everything in the world". For me it seems highly probable that most people understand it exactly that way and therefor this strophe (and the next one) got banned after WW2. --79.199.105.158 (talk) 16:34, 22 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bullshit, this strophe is NOT banned anywhere. Neither in Germany nor anywhere else. The Deutschlandlied or actually "Lied der Deutschen" had been the national anthem of Germany for many years, even before the NS regime gained power. What you are probably refering to is the "Horst Wessel Lied" which was the anthem of the NSDAP. This song was made the unofficial second national anthem of Germany during the NS era and forbidden after the war. Dennis07 (talk) 07:27, 24 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a reason why this page has not been categorized into this category yet? --Dennis07 (talk) 07:29, 24 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Cognates[edit]

Probably, cognates of "über" at the beginning of the article should also include Ancient Greek "ὑπέρ" (hypér), Latin "super" and its descendants (Italian "sopra"; Catalan, Galician, Spanish, Portuguese "sobre"; French "sur" and others). --37.11.123.250 (talk) 12:45, 15 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]