Superior Vs. Supervisor

[RentalRacer]

Ok so by no means am I "Mr. Grammer"

But my pet peeve is when:

A. Someone refers to their boss as their "Superior"
B. One of my employees refers to me as their "Superior"
C. When my Supervisor refers to himself as my "Superior"

I hear this countless times, and see it in many many many posts here on CS. Personally, I feel nobody is my Superior. Even if they are my boss, regional staff, etc etc.

Unless you are in the military where you refer to those with a higher rank than you as a Superior Officer, your boss should be referred to as a Supervisor, IMHO. To me, calling someone my Superior is detrimental to my already-shaky-enough self confidence.

Maybe I am alone in this train of thought, I don't know. It is used so much that I am wondering if I am the one who is wrong?

[DarthRetard]

Hey, ex-military here. No, you're correct, though by textual definition in my opinion it can be used both ways. I see the term superior as a more broad use of a way to define authority....Supervisor is more what should be used, as it's a more civilian use of the term. They're technically synonyms, only difference being is:

Superior? Gives orders.

Supervisor? Gives suggestions.




Superior? No questions asked.

Supervisor? Not omnipotent.


Superior? Hands out punishments and reprimands.

Supervisor? Makes warnings, threats and write-ups.

[Discourtesy Clerk]

I've always thought of "superior" as just another word for someone who holds a higher position than you. It's not that the person is superior, just that their position is. Now, as far as someone referring to themselves as a superior...that's still pretty freaking egotistical.

[NightAngel]

The definition of supervisor is:

1. a person who supervises workers or the work done by others; superintendent.

The definition of superior is:

1. higher in station, rank, degree, importance, etc.: a superior officer.

So, while either is technichally correct I will agree that supervisor sounds better. Usually, I just refer to my "supervisor" as a Manager/ My Manager and am refered to as same.

Quotes from Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/

[Seshat]

I think you're right, and 'superior' shouldn't be being used in a person-to-person sense.

But for your own sanity, rather than trying to make everyone else change (they won't), modify your own thinking.

Learn the anatomical uses of 'superior' and 'inferior':

Superior: towards the head.

Inferior: towards the feet.

Therefore, the 'superior vena cava' is the vein that brings blood from the top of the body to the heart, and is 'headwards' from the 'inferior vena cava' (which brings blood from the lower half of the body to the heart).

The other directional word-pairs, by the way, are 'anterior' and 'posterior' (front and back), and 'lateral' and 'medial' (to the sides vs to the middle).


So when someone's 'superior' to you, it means they're towards the top of the organisation chart. Nothing more. It's as meaningless in value as would be if they were lateral or medial to you.