に過ぎない — is it always self-deprecating/humble, or can it dismiss someone else?

Question

I've mostly seen に過ぎない used humbly about oneself: 「私はただの学生に過ぎません」= 'I'm just a student, nothing more.' Can it also be used to dismiss or minimize someone/something else, in a slightly condescending way? Like calling someone's achievement 'merely' something?

Accepted Answer

Yes, absolutely — に過ぎない is neutral about WHOSE thing is being minimized; the humble-about-oneself usage is just one common application. It's used constantly in critical/analytical writing to deflate someone else's claim: 「それは単なる噂に過ぎない」= 'that's nothing more than a rumor' (dismissing a claim's credibility), or 「彼の成功は運に過ぎない」= 'his success is nothing but luck' (minimizing someone's achievement, arguably a bit harsh). The core meaning is always 'the true scale/significance of X stops HERE, don't inflate it beyond this' — self or other, doesn't matter.