a. (sb.) [ad. med.L. superhūmānus: see SUPER- 4 and HUMAN a. Cf. F. surhumain, It. soprumano, Sp., Pg. sobrehumano.] Above that which is human; more than human.
a. Of a quality, act, etc.: Higher than that of man; beyond the capacity or power of man.
1633. Earl Manch., Al Mondo (1636), 203. This is the state of Loves life in God, which giveth a super-humane being unto man, man being yet on earth.
a. 1711. Ken, Hymns Evang., Poet. Wks. 1721, I. 127. Bless’d water in the Font … Though worthless in itself, in Sacred use It Graces superhuman can produce.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, i. There was no necessity for superhuman means to obtain such knowledge.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel (1876), 453. The miracle of superhuman knowledge.
1874. H. Rogers (title), The Superhuman Origin of the Bible Inferred from Itself.
1896. Dk. Argyll, Philos. Belief, 326. Superhuman agencies and powers.
absol. 1876. Gladstone, Homeric Synchr., 198. Such prodigies of valour as may fairly be … considered to approximate to the superhuman.
b. Of a person or being: Higher than man; having a nature above that of man.
1824. Macaulay, Misc. Writ. (1860), I. 64. To describe superhuman beings in the language, and to attribute to them the actions, of humanity may be grotesque, unphilosophical, inconsistent.
1866. Liddon, Bampton Lect., vi. (1875), 296. Christ is a superhuman person.
c. In rhetorical or hyperbolical use: Higher or greater than that of any ordinary man; beyond the average human capacity, stature, etc.
1822. Scott, Nigel, vi. The superhuman yells which he uttered.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. v. 419. Seven months of almost superhuman energy.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, l. While he was still steeped to the lips in superhuman luxury.
d. as sb. Used to render G. übermensch SUPERMAN.
1896. W. Wallace, in Academy, 1 Aug., 75/2. He [Nietzsche] is … a hermit of the present, and a man, or rather a more than man, a ‘superhuman,’ of the future.
