Word of the Day – Ersatz

Ersatz (adj)

er-zats

serving as a substitute; synthetic; artificial.

Ersatz “serving as a substitute” is a borrowing of the German noun Ersatz “a substitute,” from the verb ersetzen “to replace.” Ersetzen is a compound of the Old High German elements ir- “out” and sezzan “to set.” Ir-, a variant of ur-, is related to English about, but, out, utmost, and utter as well as to German Urheimat and Ursprache

Example sentences

“They’ve introduced tokens but it’s nothing but ersatz wealth, it’s not real!”