ersatz

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The Word of the Day for March 30 is:

ersatz   \AIR-sahts\   adjective
     : being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation

Example sentence:
     After ordering his coffee, Tony saw that there was no sugar available at 
the counter, so he had to settle for an ersatz alternative.

Did you know? 
     "Ersatz" can be traced back in English to 1875, but it really came into 
prominence during World War I. Borrowed from German, where "Ersatz" is a noun 
meaning "substitute," the word was frequently applied as an adjective in 
English to items like "coffee" (from acorns) and "flour" (from potatoes) -- 
ersatz products resulting from the privations of war. By the time World War II 
came around, bringing with it a resurgence of the word along with more 
substitute products, "ersatz" was wholly entrenched in the language. Today, 
"ersatz" can be applied to almost anything that seems like an artificial 
imitation: "Even when those marketplaces did succeed, the fun always felt a 
little ersatz." (Malcolm Jones Jr., _Newsweek_, April 22, 1996)





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