über

This prefix uber-, particularly rampant on E2, is directly derived from the word Übermensch, originally conceived by Friedrich Nietzsche, and popularized by the German Nazi regime, for whom it served to indicate the supposedly superior White "Aryan" race, which, by virtue of its superiority, supposedly had the moral right to enslave and mass murder people of different ethnic origin.

(Note that über- as a prefix is not in general use in German. Its use is quite specific to the particular word, Übermensch.)

As a direct and - apparently - approving reference to racism, the prefix uber- is quite offensive to Europeans of older generations, considered in bad taste, and viewed as a sign of the lack of historic awareness among American youth.

Compare the (hypothetical) use of a prefix nigger- in German to indicate 'bad', 'of poor quality'. (Note: this is purely hypothetical! German does not use any such prefix as far as I'm aware. It used to have a prefix Juden- to indicate 'treacherous', 'untrustworthy', but that was before the war.)

Know your language.

Just a few corrections from a native speaker: the "über-" prefix is in fact used in many other words. Über- and unter- are the direct German equivalents to the english super- and sub-, respectively.

Some valid uses of the prefix, with no racist implications whatsoever: Überbrücken (override), Übereiffer (overzealousness), überarbeiten (overworking), übernatürlich (supernatural).

Über as a descriptive word can also be used just like the English "over" - "Die Kuh sprang über den Mond" - "The cow jumped over the moon".

While the term "Übermensch" has gained racist connotation through the Nazi period in some contexts, any other usages of the word über should not be worried about. (for those interested, "Übermensch" is the literal translation of "super-human").

George Bernard Shaw, when translating Friedrich Nietzsche in 1903, chose to define übermench as superman. I suppose that Shaw wanted a word that clearly indicated extraordinary and superior capacity or social status, rather than apply a word that metaphorically describes a relative spatial position. It would be hard to imagine the world ruled by somebody called Aboveman.

Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel would later take the Superman label and apply it to a benevolent man who flies around in tights, fighting all sorts of villains, including Nazis who saw themselves as the übermenchen.

The 1925 Nobel prize for literature laurate was happy to associate über with super, but after the defeat of Hitler über gained a more negative - but also more sardonic to the risque point of cool - connotation.