I learned a new word today.

 
Ersatz.

 
According to the definition in my Kindle dictionary (what a time to be alive, eh?) ersatz is an adjective that means “made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else.”

 
Ersatz usually refers to an object, like the ersatz vegan pizza I try to make myself like. A knockoff, basically.

 
You can tell just by saying it — ersatz — that it’s not something you want to be.

 
Doesn’t it feel like an insult?

 
There are some words that feel so lovely to say — mellifluous. Serendipitous. Felicity. Tom Hiddleston. — that even if you have no clue what they mean, they make you feel lighter.

 
Not ersatz.

 
It’s like the blubberfish of words.

 
So why, then, despite how yucky the word feels, do so many of us use an ersatz voice when writing?

 
Why do we always want to sound like someone else?

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