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# The BFD Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-bfd-word-of-the-day-382/
- Published: 2021-02-12T17:15:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-02-12T00:15:51.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 02:14

The word for today is…

ersatz (adjective) – being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation

Source : [Merriam – Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ersatz?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : 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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