Über in German has had both a physical and abstract sense for a long time, like 16th century long time. While English usage is a bit looser, it's not as complet

Über in German has had both a physical and abstract sense for a long time, like 16th century long time. While English usage is a bit looser, it's not as completely unfounded as you make it sound. Wikipedia actually covers usage better than I would have expected: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cber#In_German http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cber#In_German