superman

[ soo-per-man ]

noun

, plural su·per·men.

1. a person of extraordinary or superhuman powers.
2. an ideal superior being conceived by Nietzsche who attains happiness, dominance, and creativity.
3. a superior being conceived as the product of human evolution.
4. one who prevails by virtue of being a ruthless egoist of superior strength, cunning, and force of will.

superman

/ ˈsuːpəˌmæn /

noun

1. (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

Superman

¹

1. A seemingly immortal, superhuman comic-strip character created in the late 1930s, who hides his powers beneath the persona of Clark Kent, a mild-mannered newspaper reporter. Only when there is a threat of danger — often to his fellow reporter and secret love, Lois Lane — does Clark transform himself into the caped hero with x-ray vision.

Superman

²

1. An ideal of humanity found in Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche . The Superman, or Overman (the German is Übermensch ), is the single goal of all human striving, for which people must be willing to sacrifice all. It is doubtful that Nietzsche thought of the Overman as an individual person.

Gender Note

See -man.

Notes

Superman has been adapted for various radio and television series and a number of highly successful films.

Word History and Origins

Origin of superman¹

1900–05; super- + man, translation of German Übermensch

Example Sentences

After the Second World War, the Ukrainian-born writer Vasily Grossman once argued that “the superman is born of the despair of the weak, not from the triumph of the strong.”

From Time

If you endo on your bike or superman on your skis, your Icon should be fine.

From Outside Online

Sadly, the movie did so poorly it sunk any chance of a Superman 5.

From TechCrunch

Now, Superman is officially losing "The American Way" from his iconic catchphrase.

From TechCrunch

Long is a superman of sorts, the result of a genetic experiment that lets him live for hundreds of years.

From MIT Technology Review

Can you imagine Superman being handed over to a writer just a notch above amateur?

From The Daily Beast

What this essentially means is that superman-wannabe white people do not see my people as their equal.

From The Daily Beast

That all-American iconography has always been so potent in the Superman myth.

From The Daily Beast

When she joins Batman and Superman in the Justice Society of America, she does so as secretary.

From The Daily Beast

Marston wrote that Wonder Woman needed “all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”

From The Daily Beast

I dreamed for you a triumphal march of powerful harmonies, a genius, a superman, such as only you deserve.

From Project Gutenberg

To-day the Kaiser claims to have won the victory of "a superman."

From Project Gutenberg

These lashes are the vision of the superman, of the one who rightfully possesses strength, happiness, and liberty.

From Project Gutenberg

It is not beyond the imagination to believe that your Mekstrom Superman might live three times our frail four-score and ten.

From Project Gutenberg

And then it came to me that what I really wanted second of all was to possess a body of Mekstrom Flesh, to be a physical superman.

From Project Gutenberg