THE word 'super' is intended to denote greatness and superiority but now it is turning into the s-word.
Lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary say there has been a rise in the number of times adjectives are prefixed by the word "super".
The top 'super' offenders are:
- Super-strong
- Super-expensive
- Super-fit
- Super-hot
- Super-annoying
- Super-cool
- Super-rich
- Super-secret
- Super-sensitive
The rate of using 'super' has gone up from 1.13 per million words during 2000 to 2013 to 1.30 per million from mid 2012 to 2016, a whopping 15 per cent.
Fiona McPherson, new words editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, suggested that its use may be influenced by America, where nouns have long been preceded by “super”, and now adjectives.
It may now make an entry in a future version of Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage, according to the editor, Jeremy Butterfield.
Mr Butterfield said: "I can see some regard it as superficial and gushy and grating, and I can understand that point of view.
"I find it quite useful, actually. Yes, it’s super-useful.”
Mr Butterfield is not the only one to use the adjective as rapper Kanye West referred to people at a club as being "super-calculating" in 2008.
But using the word 'super' as a prefix can be traced back way before Kayne to 1575 in the Letter Book of Gabriel Harvey.
It reads: "O my soverayne goodman, howe can your owne soverayne joye . . . but shape a benigne answer to so benigne and superbenigne a replye?”
Even Shakespeare referred to his “super-dainty Kate” in The Taming of the Shrew.
Comment below and tell us your least favourite use of 'super' as a prefix.
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