ersatz
/ˈɛəɹsɑts/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.34 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
An inauthentic or inadequate substitute or imitation.
noun
Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "“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.”"
- "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.."
- "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)."
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”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɛəɹsɑts/
- British English: /ˈɛəzæts/