über / ˈu:bər /



The Simpson's episode
"The Fight before Christmas"
was brought to you by the Umlaut

 This may not be, strictly speaking, an English word, but it has become über-popular lately in this language. Basically, it is a substitute for the 'super-' prefix, which is related to its original German meaning, but not exactly the same. My instinct says that it should be used to emphasize adjectives, and I find something weird when it precedes nouns, but nevertheless it is used a lot in this way.

I can think of several reasons for its recent presence it today's speech, like, for instance, that 'super' may be already a bit worn out, or that though it is a foreign word, it is an easy one, but I am sure that it has a lot to do also with the umlaut (the ¨ sign over the u), that makes it classy.

The umlaut over the u (which can be alternatively written 'ue'), by the way, means that the original pronunciation is not a normal u, but somewhat closer to the French 'u'. A simple shortcut could be to move your lips as though pronouncing a u (closed lips, tongue forward), and then try to pronounce an i. But it is better not to try too hard, or you may risk to look über-petulant.

Example 1: The Online Photographer: A Few Examples Of Naturalism in Photography

And while we're on to female photographers, Linda McCartney. Yes, I'm one of "those people" who think that Linda would have been better known and better thought of if she hadn't been an über-celebrity's spousal unit

Example 2: Engadget Podcast 262 - 10.28.2011 (time 50:35)

The Motorola Atrix 2 review went out today from Brad. The overall conclusion is that this is a very nice phone but is not the World conquering über-phone that the original Atrix 4G was expecting

Example 3: Kai on the World’s Most Expensive Leica

So, this is one extravagant trophy for the über upper-class, though I really hope they donate it to a museum because that’s where it is best appreciated.

Closing with an über-funny joke would be so easy... that I will just bite my tongue and spare this last one.