ersatz
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Ersatz
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From the German Ersatz (“a replacement”); and from the German verb ersetzen (“to replace”).
Pronunciation [edit]
Adjective [edit]
ersatz (comparative more ersatz, superlative most ersatz)
- Made in imitation; artificial, especially of an inferior quality.
- Back then, we could only get ersatz coffee.
Synonyms [edit]
Quotations [edit]
- 1923, Arthur Michael Samuel, The Mancroft Essays, Pinchbeck, page 164 (possibly published before in The Saturday Review in 1917–1921):
- 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.
- 1929, "Zeppelining," Time, 16 Sep.,
- 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.
- 2001, The New Yorker, 15 Oct,
- 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).
- 2003, The New Yorker, 17 & 24 Feb,
- 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.
- 2004, The New Yorker, 31 May,
- The crowd wandered out to a huge party on the ersatz city blocks of the Paramount lot.
Noun [edit]
ersatz (plural ersatzes)
- (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought): Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
something made in imitation
French [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From German Ersatz.
Noun [edit]
ersatz m (plural ersatz)
