Impressively splendid; of the highest quality; excellent.
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Latin1540swell-attested
From Latin 'superbus' (proud, haughty, magnificently grand), built from 'super-' (above, over, beyond) and the root of PIE *bʰuH- (to be, to grow, to become). The PIE verbal root *bʰuH- is extraordinarily productive: it is the ancestor of Latin 'fui' (I was), English 'be,' German 'bin' (I am), and Sanskrit 'bhavati' (he becomes). Latin 'superbus' combined the spatial sense of 'above' with the existential sense of 'to be' — to be superbus was to situate yourself above
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In Spanish, 'soberbio' (from the same Latin 'superbus') primarily means 'arrogant' and 'proud,' preserving the negative Latin sense that Englishdropped. So a 'superb' performance in English would be described differently in Spanish, where the cognate word carries overtones of hubris.