Word of the Day

: March 30, 2007

ersatz

adjective AIR-sahts

What It Means

: being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation

ersatz in Context

After ordering his coffee, Tony saw that there was no sugar available at the counter, so he had to settle for an ersatz alternative.

Did You Know?

"Ersatz" can be traced back in English to 1875, but it really came into prominence during World War I. Borrowed from German, where "Ersatz" is a noun meaning "substitute," the word was frequently applied as an adjective in English to items like "coffee" (from acorns) and "flour" (from potatoes) -- ersatz products resulting from the privations of war. By the time World War II came around, bringing with it a resurgence of the word along with more substitute products, "ersatz" was wholly entrenched in the language. Today, "ersatz" can be applied to almost anything that seems like an artificial imitation: "Even when those marketplaces did succeed, the fun always felt a little ersatz." (Malcolm Jones Jr., Newsweek, April 22, 1996)