Super

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈsypɑ/

Definitions

1. A prefix or term suggesting an extraordinary level of quality or intensity that surpasses the normal standard
2. An element indicating something that exceeds usual limits or expectations in terms of quality or intensity
3. A term or prefix referring to a level of excellence or quality that surpasses the ordinary or expected standards

Etymology: Before it became a prefix for "above and beyond", Latin "super" simply meant "above" or "over" in physical space, and English inherited that spatial sense through Middle English. The adjective "super" you are asking about is a shortening of the prefix, so the word is less a root than a clipped piece of something longer. Its ancestors reach back to a Proto-Indo-European pair of roots meaning something like "up" and "over", which passed into Proto-Italic and then Latin. The prefix "super-" came into Middle English from Latin, where it attached to words to mean "over", "beyond" or "to a greater degree". English speakers then used it freely: "superman", "superhuman" and "superpower" all follow the pattern of a spatial idea stretched into a measure of quality. Its close relatives in English are "over" and "hyper-", which come from the same ancestral sense of above, though "hyper-" arrived from Greek instead of Latin.

Synonyms: excellent, great, fantastic, wonderful, terrific

Antonyms: poor, bad, inferior, subpar, mediocre