ersatz

Borrowed from German Ersatz (“replacement”); and from the German ersetzen (“to replace”, verb).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɛəzæts/, IPA^(key): /ˈɜːsæts/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛəɹsɑts/, IPA^(key): /ˈɛəɹzɑts/, IPA^(key): /ɛəɹˈsɑːts/, IPA^(key): /ɛəɹˈzɑːts/, IPA^(key): /ˈɝsæts/
• (US) IPA^(key): [ɛəɹˈsɑːts]

  (file)

• Hyphenation: er‧satz

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.

   • 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.

   Synonyms: artificial, faux, imitation, knock off, gingerbread (obsolete)

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

• Artzes

Borrowed from German Ersatz.

• IPA^(key): /ɛʁ.zats/

ersatz m (plural ersatz)

1. ersatz

• “ersatz” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).