superman

What it means

1. human sciencesAn imagined superior type of human being representing a new stage of human development; an übermensch; (loosely), a man of extraordinary powers.First known use 19th c.

   Nietzsche wrote of the coming of the superman.

   5 more examples

   Man does desire an ideal Superman with such energy as he can spare from his nutrition, and has in every age magnified the best living substitute for it he can find.

   1901–1903, John Tanner [pseudonym; George Bernard Shaw], “[The Revolutionist’s Handbook and Pocket Companion] Man’s Objection to His Own Improvement”, in Man and Superman. […], Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, page 194

   What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just the same shall man be to the Superman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame.

   1909, Friedrich Nietzsche; Thomas Common, transl., “Zarathustra's Prologue”, in Thus Spake Zarathustra, New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, [1940s?], OCLC 11993131, page 6

   "Well, what is it that he does that I don't do? Just say the word, - teetotal, vegetarian, aeronaut, theosophist, superman."

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

   Heroes of myths, Titans, demi-gods, Prometheus, who brought fire from heaven; prophets, messiahs and saints of all religions; heroes of fairy tales and epic songs, knights who rescue captive princesses, awake sleeping beauties, vanquish dragons, and fight giants and ogres—all these are images of a superman.

   1931, P[yotr] D[emianovich] Ouspensky, “Superman”, in R[eginald] R. Merton, transl., A New Model of the Universe, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, page 113

   Early in Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov has become obsessed with the notion that he himself is a "superman." Therefore, he thinks, he is not subject to the laws that govern ordinary people.

   2016, A Study Guide for Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” (Novels for Students), Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale; Cengage Learning, →ISBN

2. Someone likened to the comics character Superman; a man of seemingly superhuman powers.First known use 20th c.

   What type of human weakness might a being of unfathomable power—a superman—inadvertently expose to the keen analytic mind of an avenging dark knight?

   2016, Patrick J. Reider, “How Batman Cowed a God”, in Nicolas Michaud, editor, Batman, Superman, and Philosophy: Badass or Boyscout? (Popular Culture and Philosophy; 100), Chicago, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Company, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   By the latter part of 1848, the throne of Hudson the Railway King who had been called in in 1845 as a superman to save the Eastern Counties Railway, was tottering to its fall, [...].

   1941 December, Kenneth Brown, “The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 533

   I wanted someone whose income combined with mine could afford us a family, an apartment, a car, and all the travel, luxury, and fun we could possibly tolerate. I wanted a Superman.

   2010 August, A[lex] E[chevarria] Roman, chapter 25, in The Superman Project: A Chico Santana Mystery, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 218

   Didn’t they tell us we needed illegals to help build more houses to counter the housing shortage in the US? Why don’t they put all these returning construction supermen to work in Mexico?.

   2025 July 8, Brandon Smith, “Do They Deserve It? Mexico Is Collapsing As The US Deports Illegals Back Home”, in Alt-Market.us

In a sentence

Nietzsche wrote of the coming of the superman.

Where it comes from

1. GermanÜbermensch
2. Englishsuperman

A calque of German Übermensch; super- + man. The German word was introduced by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) in his work Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883), and rendered in English as superman by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in the play Man and Superman (1903) and by Thomas Common (1850–1919) in his 1909 translation of Nietzsche’s work. The “person of extraordinary powers” sense was reinforced by the DC Comics’ character Superman, who first appeared in Action Comics #1 dated June 1938.

First known use: 19th c.