I first encountered it with Nietzsche's Uber-mensch--but don't know when it
crossed over to teen argot.
Jane Saral
On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 9:43 AM, Miller, Robert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> …and oh yes, it is used in front of an adjective or an noun…
>
>
>
> Uber cool.
>
> Uber geek
>
>
>
> Bob Miller
>
>
>
> *From:* Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:
> [log in to unmask]] *On Behalf Of *Carol Morrison
> *Sent:* Thursday, June 12, 2008 9:36 AM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* Re: "Uber"-use
>
>
>
> Thank you, Paul. I am wondering if you can place "uber" in front of a noun
> or an adjective. For instance, one could refer to Ben Stiller in the movie
> "Zoolander" as an uber-model or as uber-cool. Either way, he is over the top
> in terms of a being a modeling prototype of sorts and in terms of contrived
> coolness (or coolness in the extreme). Am I close? I just want to be sure
> that if I use the term that it is correctly employed. (I'm sure that my
> students will be impressed with my hipness) Thanks!
>
> Carol
>
> --- On *Thu, 6/12/08, Paul E. Doniger <[log in to unmask]>* wrote:
>
> From: Paul E. Doniger <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: "Uber"-use
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 7:35 AM
>
> Carol,
>
>
>
> 'Uber' is a German word, meaning 'over'. As far as I understand it, it
> indicates some sort of a "pejorative superlative," if such a thing is even
> possible. Thus, an "uber-geek" is a geek who is so "geeky" that he or she is
> way over the top of "geekness" (so my students might rightly call me an
> "uber-theatre-geek"). Does this make any sense?
>
>
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Sorry, I did not mean to hyphenate "prefix."
>
>
> --- On *Wed, 6/11/08, Carol Morrison <[log in to unmask]>* wrote:
>
> From: Carol Morrison <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: "Uber"-use
> To: "Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar" <
> [log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008, 9:22 PM
>
> Can anyone tell me what the English usage of "uber" as a pre-fix means?
> (ie. uber-geek, uber-hip). I recently returned from a trip to Seattle (over
> Memorial Day) where I first heard this word used by my younger brother and
> his friends in conversation. Now I'm seeing it everywhere...
>
> Carol
> --- On *Wed, 6/11/08, Spruiell, William C <[log in to unmask]>* wrote:
>
> From: Spruiell, William C <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Anthimeria: Hell in a handbasket
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wednesday, June 11, 2008, 9:10 PM
>
> Peter,
>
> The heavy use of "name" in those definitions may be partly a legacy
>
> of the history of the term itself ("noun" basically meant
>
> "name") and partly because the Renaissance tradition Lowth et al.
>
> had inherited was itself influenced (unsurprisingly) by medieval philosophy,
>
> and there were some important philosophical consequences of viewing a noun as a
>
> name rather than as a cue that led to representation. I doubt Lowth was weighing
>
> in on any of those philosophical arguments by using the definition he did -- it
>
> had just become common practice when defining nouns in any language by the time
>
> Lowth was born.
>
>
>
> Bill Spruiell
>
> Dept. of English
>
> Central Michigan University
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
>
>
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Peter Adams
>
> Sent: Wed 6/11/2008 12:40 PM
>
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Subject: Re: Anthimeria: Hell in a handbasket
>
>
>
>
>
> Definitions have all the vices Jesperson and Ed complain of, for sure. And
>
> yet, how my students cry out for them. They seem to think, and they may be
>
> right, that being able to sort things--words, for instance,--into categories is
>
> a necessary step on the path to using them effectively.
>
>
>
> By the way, I've always wondered why Lowth and almost every handbook author
>
> since want to say a noun is the NAME of something. My students find that
>
> definition very confusing when they come to learn what proper nouns are . . .
>
> names of things in a different sense. Perhaps it would be clearer for novices
>
> to say nouns are words that represent . . . persons, places, things, abstract
>
> ideas, anything that exists. The last part is the hard part, but I've
>
> always resisted saying nouns are names.
>
>
>
> Peter Adams
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Jun 11, 2008, at 12:28 PM, Edgar Schuster wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> Bill (and others),
>
> For what it's worth---and I'm not sure it's worth much---I
>
> have a Murray definition of noun as "the name of any thing that exists, or
>
> of which we have any notion." Lowth wrote "the Name of a thing; of
>
> whatever we conceive in any way to subsist, or of which we have any
>
> notion."
>
> Maybe this comment from Otto Jespersen is worth a lot more: "If
>
> there is one thing I dislike in grammar, it is definitions (of parts of speech)
>
> too often met with in our textbooks. They are neither exhaustive nor true; they
>
> have not, and cannot have, the precision and clearness of the definitions found
>
> in textbooks of mathematics . . . . And thus we might go on to the definitions
>
> found even in the best grammars: they are unsatisfactory, all of them, and I do
>
> not think they are necessary."
>
> The English Journal [!!!], 1924
>
>
>
> Ed Schuster
>
>
>
>
>
> **************
>
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