German

Noun

Ersatz m ‎(genitive Ersatzes, plural Ersätze)

1. replacement, substitute
2. compensation

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• English: ersatz

English

Adjective

ersatz ‎(comparative more ersatz, superlative most ersatz)

1. Made in imitation; artificial, especially of a poor quality.

   Back then, we could only get ersatz coffee.

Synonyms

• artificial, faux, imitation, knock off; gingerbread (obsolete)

Quotations

• 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

ersatz ‎(plural ersatzes)

1. Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought):

Synonyms

• imitation, knock off

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowing from German Ersatz.

Noun

ersatz m ‎(plural ersatz)

1. ersatz