For a few years now I’ve been addicted to the adjective super. I blame the Germans, because why not. When speaking German, I even use their abridgement, supi, which always seemed cutesy and laughable to me. But somehow I open my mouth and there it is.

Isn’t it funny how the words super and superb are so close to each other orthographically, and close in meaning, and yet one is considered plebian while the other is a lofty, almost snobbish choice? 

Super: 1) of a high grade or quality; 2) very large or powerful.

Superb: 1) marked to the highest degree by grandeur, excellence, brilliance or competence.

It’s almost as if back in 1802, someone who couldn’t handle consonant clusters downgraded superb to super, stripping away the ‘grandeur, excellence’ etc.

Do English speakers use super a lot? I never thought so, its rings old-fashioned. Of course you do use it in superpower, supersonic and superelastic bubbleplastic. 

Maybe I should give up super for superb. Perhaps it would elevate my status in this world.