Ersatz

Categories: German loanwords

Ersatz is a German word literally meaning substitute.

Although Ersatz is used only as an adjective in English, Ersatz can function in German either as a noun on its own (meaning "replacement"), or as an adjective in compound nouns such as Ersatzteile (spare parts) or Ersatzspieler (substitute player).

The term Ersatz gained international attention probably during World War I, when allied fleets cutting off all transports to Germany by sea forced Germany to develop substitues for products like chemical compounds and provisions. Ersatz products developed were for example: synthetic rubber (buna produced from oil), benzene for heating oil (coal gas) and coffee, using roasted beans, which were not coffee beans. Though a similar situation arose in Germany during World War II this connotation with the Term Ersatz has sunk into oblivion in present Germany.

The wartime experience of ersatz products is satirized in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which features a line of Victory products, such as Victory Gin and Victory Cigarettes, which are uniformly vile.de:Ersatz fr:Ersatz it:Surrogato