Where did 'uber' come from?

Post by **Zaia** » 2003-02-11 01:47am

The 'riced up' thread reminded me that I wanted to ask this question. Where da hell did 'uber' come from? I guy I know used it in conversation the other day, and I was surprised simply because I'd only ever heard it here on this board.

So......?

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-02-11 01:48am

Its German for "super", "superior", or "above".

Post by **Zaia** » 2003-02-11 01:50am

I know what it means; I figured that out from context. Why did people start using it as a prefix, though? Is it from a game? A TV show? Some comedian? Or is it an sd.net thing and this guy I know is actually on the board here?!

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-11 01:52am

I believe it comes from WW2 and Germany and the phrase "Deutschland uber alles." Now days, uber refers to things that are better than everything else.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2003-02-11 01:52am

No, its not just confined to this board. Its quite common among computer games... as to how it came into common usage, I haven't a clue.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-02-11 01:52am

I think people use it to lend a comedic twist to their posts.

Darth Fanboy · Post by **Darth Fanboy** » 2003-02-11 01:54am

Ive just always used it instead of the word "super" which doesn't sound near as kewl.

Isil`Zha · Post by **Isil`Zha** » 2003-02-11 01:54am

SSX tricky has "Uber-tricks"

It's used commonly in online communities.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-02-11 01:55am

Somehow, it seems better than the prefix "super". Or at least, more exotic.

If someone says "this super-powerful weapon", does that sound as cool as "uber-weapon?"

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-02-11 01:56am

uber > mega > bad-ass > super > nifty

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2003-02-11 01:57am

I remeber first hearing in reference to the Nazi concept of unter- and uber-menschen that they used in their propaganda campaigns. I believe it also entered into our conciousness from Mike Meyers hilarious SNL skit "Sprockets" with Dieter, I remember him using it a few times. Also , its very much a guy thing , probably because German just sounds damn cool. Any language that can make a recipie for "Cookies with no Eggs"(Fron the Tool track off Aenema)sound like your making a pact with the devil is just too cool to be ignored and not glean a few words and phrases.

Post by **Zaia** » 2003-02-11 01:58am

I like it, don't get me wrong. I was just taken aback when this guy said, "Blah blah blah with my uber-computer and then blah-dee-blah blah..."

I hadn't heard it used IRL; just on the board, so...yeah. I knew what it meant, I just didn't know if it was a Quake thing (Einy likes to say it), or if it was an SD.net thing (that would be REALLY weird), or something else. That's all.

Thanks!

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-02-11 01:59am

Well, Isil'Zha beat me to it, but I picked it up from SSX Tricky. I'd heard it before then, but never used it.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-02-11 02:06am

CS probably had a lot to do with it, like it helped spread 1337.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-02-11 03:01am

I heard it on the net, just like leetspeak, here's an example:

Ub3RL337.... LOL

Post by **Edi** » 2003-02-11 03:29am

[rant]
It's über, not uber. That lack of umlaut bothers me no end. Maybe I'm nitpicky in this case, and perhaps that's because I've studied German for several years, but it's still annoying. Just like I get annoyed every time they show a Finnish name spelled wrong. E.g. The NHL hockey player Teemu Selänne, not Selanne, that ä is damn well a different letter than a.
[/rant]

Yes, we have 29 letters in our alphabet, so sue me!

Anyway, yeah, I know, people don't really care, and neither do I for the most part, it's something that doesn't really have much of an impact on the big scheme of things. I just felt liek ranting on the subject.

Edi

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-02-11 03:51am

Edi wrote:[rant]
It's über, not uber. That lack of umlaut bothers me no end. Maybe I'm nitpicky in this case, and perhaps that's because I've studied German for several years, but it's still annoying. Just like I get annoyed every time they show a Finnish name spelled wrong. E.g. The NHL hockey player Teemu Selänne, not Selanne, that ä is damn well a different letter than a.
[/rant]

Yes, we have 29 letters in our alphabet, so sue me!

Anyway, yeah, I know, people don't really care, and neither do I for the most part, it's something that doesn't really have much of an impact on the big scheme of things. I just felt liek ranting on the subject.

Edi

Took that into account and fix0r3d my Sig...

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-02-11 04:04am

You know... I'm kind of glad that Half-Life's Lambda insignia wasn't purple... otherwise the fundies would have killed it instantly, saying that it supports "gay morals"...

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-02-11 04:58am

As a local German, I have to say that it always is terrible to see it written "uber" instead of "über".
You know that you can emulate the Umlaut by adding "e" after the vocal? Like ue instead of ü, ae instead of ä, and oe instead of ö.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-02-11 05:34am

The problem with that is that my keyboard doesn't have those little dots.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2003-02-11 05:52am

Gandalf wrote:The problem with that is that my keyboard doesn't have those little dots.

Excuses, excuses. Dahak just posted how to do it without them little dots

And while I'm german, not only do I like 'uber', but I actually find Umlaute on a board that's primarily English somewhat irritating.
It somehow looks out of place.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-02-11 05:54am

Batman wrote:
Gandalf wrote:The problem with that is that my keyboard doesn't have those little dots.
Excuses, excuses. Dahak just posted how to do it without them little dots

And while I'm german, not only do I like 'uber', but I actually find Umlaute on a board that's primarily English somewhat irritating.
It somehow looks out of place.

What does he mean by adding "after the vocal"?, I'm no computologist guy.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-02-11 06:03am

I think he basically means "after the vowel in question".

But really, adding the 'e' doesn't help much in English. In English, "uber" sounds just about as close to "über" as you're going to get someone to say it. In fact, if you ask the average person to pronounce "ueber" in English, they'll probably say something like "youber" or "weber". And if you ask them to pronounce "über" they'll likely say "uber".

Cyborg Stan · Post by **Cyborg Stan** » 2003-02-11 08:44am

Assuming you have a PC, you can hold down ALT and punch in the ASCII code in the numpad, and then release ALT

154 will give you Ü
129 will give you ü

Another code I use often is 253 (²). Of course, using them when typing in browsers sometimes makes them do funny things, but most of my longer responses I usually type out first in Notepad anyway.

Kelly Antilles · Post by **Kelly Antilles** » 2003-02-11 09:08am

über has been around a long time in games. There's always the über villian or the über weapon. I've used über pretty much forever, and I'm not even German. Don't have an ounce of German blood in me. But, I do love the language....