[f. SUPER- 6 + MAN sb.1, transl. G. übermensch (F. W. Nietzsche, German philosopher, 1844–1900). Cf. F. surhomme (Lichtenberger, 1901), occas. superhomme. Overman and (occas.) beyond-man have been used.] An ideal superior man conceived by Nietzsche as being evolved from the normal human type. Also transf. and allusively.
1897. G. Stanley Hall, in Times (Philad.), 10 April, 4/2. This marvelous will to live, which is always pushing up every form of life toward growth and reproduction, needs all the aid that school, state, church, home can give it, because the best things have not happened yet, the super-man has not yet been born and the world can hardly yet catch a glimpse of its ultimate protection. Ibid. (1901), Student Customs, 18. Thus makes the individual more effective when he seeks to storm the height of life or summon his resources for a titanic effort toward the level of the super-man that is to be in the world.
1903. G. B. Shaw, Man & Superman, 196. We have been driven to Proletarian Democracy by the failure of all the alternative systems; for these depended on the existence of Supermen acting as despots or oligarchs; and not only were these Supermen not always or even often forthcoming at the right moment and in an eligible social position, but when they were forthcoming they could not … impose superhumanity on those whom they governed.
1903. Speaker, 17 Oct., 61/1. It is possible by breeding, by education, by social reconstruction, that the Superman may be attained.
1904. G. S. Hall, Adolescence, I. 47. Relatively … man is now in a recent epoch,… in which a new story has been added to his nature, so that he is now a super-man to his ancient forebears.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 20 March, 2/1. Christ is now the Spiritual super-man, who has anticipated humanity and reached the goal of its spiritual evolution.
1912. C. Sarolea, Anglo-German Problem, i. 59. Like Nietzsche, the modern German believes that the world must be ruled by a super-man, and that he is the super-man.
Hence Supermanism, the doctrine of the superman; Supermanly a. [cf. MANLY a. 2], having the qualities of, or befitting, the or a superman; whence Supermanliness.
1905. G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, 85. But if he [the Superman] is simply more supermanly [than other men], they may be quite indifferent to him as they would be to another seemingly aimless monstrosity.
1907. Marett, Threshold Relig., Is Taboo a Negative Magic? (1914), 97. Lest they be blasted by the superman’s supermanliness.
1916. Sir J. H. Yoxall, The Recent Prussian, in 19th Cent., LXXX. Sept., 467. Perhaps he [sc. Nietzsche] got some adumbration of Supermanism in that way.
