Make Your Point: ECHT

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pronounce ECHT:

EKT.

Or, if you like it to sound German: EHHKT. That is, pronounce the "ch" in the back of the throat. But it's not necessary!

Hear it.

connect this word to others:

A high five for Regina for finding us the kooky word echt! It means "true, real, genuine, authentic." She spotted it in a novel:

"There was no echt Sadie in this view, he decided. She looked indistinguishable from any number of smart, well-maintained college girls in the train station."

See if you you can recall the opposite of echt. Also from German, er___z means "fake, pretend, inauthentic." As in, "Dr. Thunder, Dr. Perky, Dr. Perfect: it's all er___z Dr. Pepper."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Echt" came from both German and Yiddish into English around the year 1916.

We've kept the meaning the same: something echt is real, genuine, or authentic. It's not fake, and not pretend.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "He's got the safari hat and everything. That's how you know he's an echt explorer."

Other forms:

None are common, but many writers invent their own hyphenations, especially for distinctive creators and places: "it's echt-Seuss," "it's echt-Charleston." Here's Leonard Lambert: "England has never produced an artist so echt-English as Mussorgsky is echt-Russian, or Renoir echt-French."

how to use it:

"Echt" has a delightfully positive tone.

But it's rare, and likely to be new to your listeners; so, avoid it when you need clarity. Otherwise, it's a fun, quirky, emphatic alternative to less ear-catching synonyms like "classic," "typical," "authentic," and "genuine."

It helps you call special attention to how something is very typical of its kind, or very clearly a true example of whatever it claims to be: "the echt '80s cop show Miami Vice" (New York Times); "The story 'A Day's Wait' is echt Hemingway: tense, brief, tough, but roiling with unexpressed emotions."

examples:

"If the works [at a Stuart Davis art show] had a smell, it would be like that of a factory-fresh car—an echt American aura, from the country's post-Second World War epoch of dazzling manufacture and soaring optimism."
— Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 13 June 2016

"There are spaceships, but they have pigeon sh** on them. If we can all look like vaguely plastic Marilyn Monroes, where would beauty lie? ... This sense of the fundamental paradox in things, the tension between the echt and the ersatz, drives the emotional engine of [the novel]."
— Stuart Kelly, The Guardian, 2 August 2012

has this page helped you understand "echt"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "echt" without saying "legitimate" or "bona fide."

try it out:

Here's a fun fact: there's no egg in an egg cream. It's possible that it's called an egg cream because Yiddish speakers referred to it as an "echt cream," a label that English speakers eventually corrupted. (There's no evidence for that guess; it's just a reasonable one.) I've never had an egg cream, but Harriet the Spy always makes me want one. She orders them from a luncheonette counter. They're supposed to be rich and chocolatey, with just the right amount of fizziness.

As the egg cream demonstrates, treats prepared a certain way are called echt, while others aren't.

With the egg cream in mind as an example, talk about an echt dish or drink that only a certain person or restaurant can create. What distinguishes it from its ersatz imitators?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for March: it's the Inkhorn Stinkhorn!

It’s inspired by the Twofer Goofer, created by Collin Waldoch, in which you're given a circumlocutory clue, like "An eater with an excessive appetite for clothes fasteners," and you provide a rhyming answer, in this case "button glutton." You're then treated to an AI-generated rendering of the goofy concept you just named. In general in the Twofer Goofer, the words are straightforward and the AI art is lovely.

But here in the Inkhorn Stinkhorn, the words are pedantic and the AI art is atrocious. Enjoy!

Try this one today: Name a two-word rhyming phrase that means "wisps of a spider’s abandoned home, falling apart and floating away into nothingness."

Clue #1: To reveal the first letter of each word, highlight the following text… e_____ w______

Clue #2: To reveal one of the words, highlight the following text… e_____ webbing

For the answer, scroll all the way down!

review this word:

1. As we've seen, a precise opposite of ECHT is ERSATZ. But a pretty close opposite of ECHT could be

A. FAKE.
B. MEAN.
C. UGLY.

2. The Guardian took a dig at Bloomberg: "The big soda ban was _____: small-scale, judgmental, tone-deaf, unconcerned with democratic procedure, and, ultimately, only about buying things."

A. echt Bloomberg
B. echt by Bloomberg
C. echt for Bloomberg

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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