A.Word.A.Day --ersatz

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ersatz

PRONUNCIATION:

(ER-zahts, er-ZATS)

MEANING:

adjective: Serving as a substitute, especially of inferior quality; artificial.
noun: A substitute or imitation.

ETYMOLOGY:

From German Ersatz (replacement). Earliest documented use: 1875.

USAGE:

"It may be in response to audience demands for such factory-stamped precision tooling that a whole technology of ersatz performance -- involving lip-synching, playback, and music videos -- developed."
Jim Quilty; Free Improv; The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon); Mar 12, 2010.

See more usage examples of ersatz in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else -- we are the busiest people in the world. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

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