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Ersatz vs Aloof - What's the difference?

ersatz | aloof |

As a noun ersatz

is replacement, substitute.

As an adverb aloof is

at or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away.

As an adjective aloof is

reserved and remote; either physically or emotionally distant; standoffish.

As a preposition aloof is

(obsolete) away from; clear of.

ersatz

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Made in imitation; artificial, especially of an inferior quality.
    • Back then, we could only get ersatz coffee.

    Synonyms

    * artificial, faux, imitation, knock off

    Quotations

    * 1923 , Arthur Michael Samuel, The Mancroft Essays'', ''Pinchbeck'', page 164 (possibly published before in ''The Saturday Review in 1917–1921): *: In these days of “rolled” gold, electro-plate, and undetectable pearls, it is curious that almost the only honest Ersatz material known to the goldsmith's art should be utterly forgotten. * 1929 , "Zeppelining," Time , 16 Sep., *: Ersatzgas'', ''Ersatzpfennige . Ersatz has become a brave word in Germany. As a substantive it means War Reparations. As part of compounded words it means substitute. * 2001 , The New Yorker , 15 Oct, *: The avant-garde's opposite number, in Greenberg's scheme, is kitsch, "ersatz culture"—art for capitalism's new man (who turns out to be no different from Fascism's or Communism's new man). * 2003 , The New Yorker , 17 & 24 Feb, *: The NATO visitors watched an ersatz eighteenth-century dance (complete with powdered wigs and simulated copulation) that might have been considered obscene had it not been so amusing. * 2004 , The New Yorker , 31 May, *: The crowd wandered out to a huge party on the ersatz city blocks of the Paramount lot.

    Noun

    (ersatzes)
  • Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.
    • (en)

    Synonyms

    * imitation, knock off

    aloof

    English

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away.
  • *
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother
  • Without sympathy; unfavorably.
  • *

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Reserved and remote; either physically or emotionally distant; standoffish.

    • See also

    * See also

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • (obsolete) away from; clear of
  • * Milton
    • Rivetus would fain work himself aloof these rocks and quicksands.
    (Webster 1913)