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From: rwt@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Rainer Thonnes)
Subject: Re: German/English words
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Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 16:24:13 GMT
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In article <5c8jlc$fek@fbi-news.Informatik.Uni-Dortmund.DE>,
markhof@ls12r.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Ingolf Markhof) writes:
> In article <AF0AC206966819C970@i2-28.islandnet.com>, cburd@islandnet.com
> (Chris Burd) writes:
> >
> > As a loanword in English, "ersatz" is an adjective meaning
> > "low-quality substitute",
> 
> Sorry, but you're wrong. "Ersatz" on its own doesn't mean
> "low-quality substitute", but just subsitute or replacement.
> 
> It only has the meaning of "low-quality" when used together
> with "nur", e.g.: "Das ist aber nur ein billiger Ersatz".

No, Ingolf, in this instance you're wrong and Chris is right.  You missed
the significance of "as a loanword in English".  In English, "ersatz" is
indeed predominantly used to denote substitutes which are not as good as
the real thing.  This property is completely independent of how "Ersatz"
might be used in German.
