superman

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su·per·man

(so͞o′pər-măn′)

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.

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

Word History: Superman, the all-American 20th-century comic-book hero, takes his name from the term the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used for the ideal superior man: Übermensch. The German Übermensch might also have been translated as overman or beyondman, but George Bernard Shaw's play Man and Superman, published in 1903, helped to establish the English term for Nietzsche's concept as superman. Such a term comes to us through a process called loan translation, whereby the semantic components of a word or phrase in one language are translated literally into their equivalents in another language.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

superman

(ˈsuːpəˌmæn)

n, pl -men

1. (Philosophy) (in the philosophy of Nietzsche) an ideal man who through integrity and creativity would rise above good and evil and who represents the goal of human evolution

2. any man of apparently superhuman powers

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

su•per•man

(ˈsu pərˌmæn)

n., pl. -men.

1. a person of extraordinary or superhuman powers.

2. an ideal superior being conceived by Nietzsche as attaining happiness and dominance through creativity and integrity.

[1900–05; translation of German Übermensch]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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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

nadčlověk

supermand

Supermann

υπεράνθρωπος

surhomme

felsõbbrendû ember

ofurmenni

superuomo

超人

antžmogis

pārcilvēks

overmenneske

nadčloveksuperman

süpermen

超人

superman

[ˈsuːpəmæn] N (supermen (pl)) → superhombre m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

superman

[ˈsuːpə^rmæn] n → surhomme m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

superman

n pl <-men> → Übermensch m; Superman (in comics) → Supermann m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

superman

[ˈsuːpəˌmæn] n (-men (pl)) → superuomo

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

superman

(ˈsuːpəmӕn) noun

an imagined man of the future with amazing powers. a race of supermen.

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Wilcox was king of this world, the superman, with his own morality, whose head remained in the clouds.

"No superman ever said 'I want,' because 'I want' must lead to the question, 'Who am I?' and so to Pity and to Justice.

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In his private notes on the subject the author uses the expression "Superman" (always in the singular, by-the-bye), as signifying "the most thoroughly well-constituted type," as opposed to "modern man"; above all, however, he designates Zarathustra himself as an example of the Superman.

"Never yet hath there been a Superman. Naked have I seen both of them, the greatest and the smallest man:--

The phrase "the rearing of the Superman," has very often been misunderstood.

The notion of rearing the Superman is only a new form of an ideal Nietzsche already had in his youth, that "THE OBJECT OF MANKIND SHOULD LIE IN ITS HIGHEST INDIVIDUALS" (or, as he writes in "Schopenhauer as Educator": "Mankind ought constantly to be striving to produce great men--this and nothing else is its duty.") But the ideals he most revered in those days are no longer held to be the highest types of men.

For instance, the ideal of the Superman is put forth quite clearly in all his writings during the years

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Thus, all unread in philosophy, Daylight preempted for himself the position and vocation of a twentieth-century superman. He found, with rare and mythical exceptions, that there was no noblesse oblige among the business and financial supermen.

A superman's chiefest danger was his fellow-superman.

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"I admit that he would be worth waiting for, this superman of yours," laughed the captain.

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With a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword, but whether Salensus Oll was a good swordsman or a poor I never learned; for with Dejah Thoris at my back I was no longer human--I was a superman, and no man could have withstood me then.

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Just say the word,--teetotal, vegetarian, aeronaut, theosophist, superman. I'll have a try at it, Gladys, if you will only give me an idea what would please you."