Exploring my German Heritage with Christopher Walken

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21 October 2004 @ 05:18 pm

E-words:

echt adj., echt- prefix - real, true, pure, genuine, authentic, natural, etc.; the opposite of ersatz.

eigen- prefix from eigen, eigen- "own": proper, characteristic; used in technical terms in physics and mathematics, for example in eigenfrequency, eigenvector, eigenvalue, eigenfunction, eigenspace, eigenstate. Contrast with

valrus's use of the word, which may be far superior.

ersatz n., adj. from Ersatz- "substitute": imitation or substitute (inferior); artificial; opposite of echt.

Also, ansatz n. from Ansatz "statement, formulation; beginning, start": a technical term used by mathematicians and especially by theoretical physicists to describe a solution to a problem which is guessed (usually with some free parameters).

Finally, Müesli.

9 comments | Leave a comment

9 comments —

( 9 comments — Leave a comment )

megspencer on October 21st, 2004 03:25 pm (UTC)

Aber was hat diese echte interessante discussion mit Christopher Walkin zu tun? Ist diese Verbindung ersatz, oder hat es sin?

:: grins ::

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discoflamingo on October 22nd, 2004 12:11 am (UTC)

Wow, I wish I knew more German. Like, more than those three weeks of it I took, and those random words I'm starting to learn. And damn Google for only being mildly helpful.

Walken wants hot dogs and some cowbell. Specifically, more of the cowbell. Mostly, he serves as a sort of bizarre marker that I don't know what I'm doing, which makes him more ersatz than echt. Perhaps "echsatz" is the made-up word I'm looking for.

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megspencer on October 22nd, 2004 12:24 am (UTC)
my spelling wouldn't help with the googling

In German, "sin" or "bedeutung" means "meaning." I find this an interesting false cognate. Then again, I'm currently reading a book on the holocaust, and that colors my thinking. German is a beautiful language, though.

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angharad on October 21st, 2004 06:36 pm (UTC)

So, is Ansatz like "to be proven"?

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discoflamingo on October 21st, 2004 11:20 pm (UTC)

I'm not familiar with it as a mathematician - from the definition, it looks like a statement of assumptions on the parameters involved, like "we assume a frictionless plane" or "reader should assume a spherical cow".

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angharad on October 22nd, 2004 03:50 am (UTC)

Ah, okay.

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