Ersatz:
Ersatz is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement.[2] Although it is used as an adjective in English, it is a noun in German. In German orthography noun phrases formed are usually represented as a single word, forming compound nouns such as Ersatzteile (“spare parts”) or Ersatzspieler (“substitute player”). While ersatz in English generally means that the substitution is of unsatisfactory or inferior quality compared with the “real thing”, in German, there is no such implication: e.g., Ersatzteile ‘spare parts’ is a technical expression without any implication about quality, whereas Kaffeeersatz ‘coffee substitute‘ is not made from coffee beans, and is thus inferior. [Wikipedia]
Noted in “Fact check: Images of alleged giant human skeletons are altered,” Reuters:
Followers of this conspiracy contend not only that “the trees we see now are small ersatz versions of giant, 20-mile-high trees that used to exist on earth in ancient times,” as related in a Quartz article here , but also that giants who once roamed the earth were the ones who cut them down.
I was not aware of the exact connotations of ersatz. There’s a pun in this somewhere, but I’m too crabby to dig it out. Oh, there’s one in that, too.
Take my keyboard away from me. Or my sense of humor.
Maybe someone should tell these folks there were monstrous dogs that roamed the earth, and they formed the Rocky Mountains in a process that is not for the delicate. And then they chased down and ate Paul Bunyan. The ravaged skeleton can be seen here.
