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ersatz

adj
/ˈɛəzæts/UK/ˈɜːsæts//ˈɛəɹsɑts/US

Etymology

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

  1. derived from ersetzen
  2. borrowed from Ersatz

Definitions

  1. inauthentic or inadequate substitute or imitation

    • 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.

  2. Something made in imitation

    Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.

    • They don't have the skills to tell ersatz magic from the real thing, for as children they daily invested the ersatz with what imagination they had.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at ersatz. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01ersatz02inauthentic03spurious04extraneous05dependent06subordinate07clause08clauses09claus10dutch

A definitional loop anchored at ersatz. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at ersatz

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA