ersatz en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˈɝsæts/
- /ɛəɹˈzɑːts/
- /ˈɜːsæts/
- /ɛəɹˈsɑːts/
- (US) audio
- /ˈɛəɹsɑts/ (US)
- /ˈɛəɹzɑts/
- /ˈɛəzæts/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Proto-Indo-European *sed- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti Proto-Germanic *satjaną Proto-West Germanic *sattjan Proto-West Germanic *uʀsattjan Old High German irsezzen Middle High German ersetzen German ersetzenbf. German Ersatzbor. English ersatz Borrowed from German Ersatz (“replacement, substitute”), a back-formation from ersetzen (“to replace, to substitute”).
Meanings
-
An inauthentic or inadequate substitute or imitation.
If all goes according to plan, the ersatz city hall will soon be relocated to a former lumber warehouse in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, at which point construction on the rest of Town Square will start.
2016 December 12, “Time-Travel Therapy”, in The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2017:The NATO visitors watched an ersatz eighteenth-century dance (complete with powdered wigs and simulated copulation) that might have been considered obscene had it not been so amusing.
2003 February 17, David Remnick, “Exit the Castle: Václav Havel”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC:Back then, we could only get ersatz coffee.
In these days of “rolled” gold, electro-plate, and undetectable pearls, it is curious that almost the only honest Ersatz material known to the goldsmith's art should be utterly forgotten.
1923, Arthur Michael Samuel, “Pinchbeck”, in The Mancroft Essays, page 164:The crowd wandered out to a huge party on the ersatz city blocks of the Paramount lot.
2004 May 31, “(please specify the article title)”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC:They forge documents indicating that Winston Churchill plotted World War I; they manufacture an ersatz fossil suggesting that humans have been around as long as apes; they create a pseudo-Gospel supposedly written by Paul in which he claims that Jesus never performed miracles..
2000 December 10, Daniel Zalewski, “The Misinformation Age”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2022:Ersatzgas, Ersatzpfennige. Ersatz has become a brave word in Germany. As a substantive it means War Reparations. As part of compounded words it means substitute.
[1929 September 16, “Zeppelining”, in Time:“There we are, you see! No discipline, no backbone! Have you by any chance any discipline, sir? Have you any character? Everything is fake. Everything is ersatz [translating German Ersatz]—vulgarity is everywhere I look.”
1977, Robin Smyth, transl., Mephisto, New York: Random House, translation of original by Klaus Mann, page 70:The avant-garde's opposite number, in Greenberg's scheme, is kitsch, "ersatz culture"—art for capitalism's new man (who turns out to be no different from Fascism's or Communism's new man).
2001 October 15, “(please specify the article title)”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more ersatz | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most ersatz | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Synonyms
faux · inauthentic · knockoff · gingerbread · fake · rip-off · imitation