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Generic vs Ersatz - What's the difference?

generic | ersatz |

As nouns the difference between generic and ersatz

is that generic is a product sold under a generic name while ersatz is replacement, substitute.

As an adjective generic

is very comprehensive; pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific.

generic

English

(wikipedia generic)

Alternative forms

* generick

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Very comprehensive; pertaining or appropriate to large classes or groups as opposed to specific.
  • :* "...the essence is that such self-describing poets describe what is in them, but not peculiar to them, – what is generic , not what is special and individual." — Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
  • Lacking in precision, often in an evasive fashion; vague; imprecise.
  • (of a product or drug) Not having a brand name.
  • (biology, not comparable) Of or relating to a taxonomic genus.
  • (grammar) Specifying neither masculine nor feminine; epicene.
    • Words like salesperson and firefighter are generic .
  • (computing) (Of program code) Written so as to operate on any data type, the type required being passed as a parameter.
  • (geometry, of a point) Having coordinates that are algebraically independent over the base field.

    • Synonyms

    * (comprehensive) general * (lacking a brand) unbranded

    Antonyms

    * (comprehensive) specific, proprietary * (lacking a brand) non-generic, proprietary, branded

    Derived terms

    * genericity * genericness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A product sold under a generic name
  • A wine that is a blend of several wines, or made from a blend of several grape varieties
  • (grammar) A term that specifies neither male nor female.
  • * 1998 , Jacqueline A. Dienemann, Nursing administration: managing patient care

    • Related terms

    * gender * genus

    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