superman

su·per·man  (spr-mn)

n.

1. A man with more than human powers.

2. An ideal superior man who, according to Nietzsche, forgoes transient pleasure, exercises creative power, lives at a level of experience beyond standards of good and evil, and is the goal of human evolution. Also called overman.

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[Translation of German Übermensch : über-, super- + Mensch, man.]

Word History: Superman, the all-American 20th-century comic-book hero, takes his name from the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's term for the ideal superior man, which is Übermensch in German. Übermensch might also have been translated Overman or Beyondman, but a work by George Bernard Shaw published in 1903 helped to established the English term for Nietzsche's concept as superman. Such a term comes to us through a process called loan translation, or calque formation, whereby the semantic components of a word or phrase in one language are translated literally into their equivalents in another language. German Übermensch is made up of über-, "over, beyond, super-," and Mensch, "man." We also find overman and beyondman as calques for the word Übermensch, but they did not take root.

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superman

Noun

pl -men any man with great physical or mental powers

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	superman - a person with great powers and abilities demigod, Ubermensch leader - a person who rules or guides or inspires others
	2.	superman - street name for lysergic acid diethylamide back breaker, battery-acid, Elvis, loony toons, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, window pane, acid, Zen, pane, dose, dot LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide - a powerful hallucinogenic drug manufactured from lysergic acid

Translations

superman [ˈsuːpəmæn] n → superhombre m

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superman [ˈsuːpəmæn] irreg n → surhomme m

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superman [ˈsuːpəmæn] irreg like man) n → Übermensch m

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superman [ˈsuːpəmæn] n → superuomo

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superman

n superman [ˈsuːpəmӕn]

an imagined man of the future with amazing powers a race of supermen. superman سوبرمان: الإنْسان الأعْلى، الفَوْقي، الكامِل، الأرْقى супермен nadčlověk supermand der Supermann υπεράνθρωπος superhombre supermees, supermen ابرمرد supermies surhomme סוּפֵרמֶן अतिमानव supermen, natčovjek felsőbbrendű ember manusia unggul ofurmenni superuomo スーパーマン 초인 antžmogis pārcilvēks lelaki yang luar biasa kuatnya supermens overmenneske nadczłowiek superhomem superman, supraom супермен nadčlovek, superman nadčlovek natčovek övermänniska, stålman ยอดมนุษย์ süpermen 超人 супермен فوق انسانی siêu nhân 超人