We’ve been told that the German word for substitute, i.e. Ersatz, has found it’s way into English during and after the second world war when commodities were scarce in the UK and people had to make do. This was mainly concerning coffee, or so I read (please someone confirm or deny).
FOWC with Fandango: Substitute
PS: The dreaded homophone affliction struck again. I’ve amended the title.
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pictures imperfect blog 
Ersatz story confirmed!
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We gave English such lovely words as “wanderlust” , “zeitgeist”, “biergarten” and maybe even “schadenfreude” – but the one’s we exported during that time are not our best.
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There are such a lot, aren’t there? ‘Angst’ – of course. ‘Delicatessen’ – that’s better! and ‘eiderdown’ – better still! Oh gosh yes, there are ‘doppelganger’ and ‘kindergarten’ too. You’re as invasive as the French have been!
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I credit Yiddish with delicatessen. But like the French, the German influence on English is from a time past. Today we talk about “downloaden”, “meeten”, “shoppen” etc.(putting the German infinitive ending on verbs). And I mention the infamous “Handy” and “Bodybag” with my head hung in shame (in case you don’t know: Handy = it’s what everybody holds in their hands these days: a mobile phone / body bag = nothing sinister, just a bum bag, hip pack or whatever you want to call it).
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Oh, I didn’t realise that delicatessen was Yiddish. But yes, I think we’ve mainly latched on to ‘handy’. Bodybag … just … no!
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I’m not sure about delicatessen but the first ones were Jewish. If it’s spoken slowly I can understand a lot of Yiddish so I always assumed there was a connection. Especially since in German the word is used differently tp a US deli.
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