zeitgeist

WOTD – 23 October 2006

See also: Zeitgeist

English

Alternative forms

• Zeitgeist

Etymology

Borrowing from German Zeitgeist (“time-spirit”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)¹ IPA^(key): /ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst/
• (Received Pronunciation)² IPA^(key): /ˈzaɪtɡaɪst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

zeitgeist (plural zeitgeists or zeitgeister)

1. The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period
   • 2014 February 10, Anthony Faiola, “Swiss vote to limit foreign workers captures growing European fears about immigration”, in The Washington Post^[1], retrieved 2014-02-11:

     The vote also stoked fears that Swiss citizens were reflecting the zeitgeist across Europe, …

   • 2000, Meanjin

     For hundreds of years, learned theologians and ordinary people have been working to untangle the Gospel's message of liberation from the zeitgeisten that found scriptural excuses for slavery, war, monarchy, imperialism, homophobia and the subjugation of women.

   • 1996, Michael Vanden Heuvel, Elmer Rice: A Research and Production Sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group (ISBN 9780313274312)

     After quickly summarizing the zeitgeisten of the Greek, Elizabethan, and early modern periods and their effects on the theatre, Rice turns to the contemporary world.

   • 1986, Robert Albritton, A Japanese Reconstruction Of Marxist Theory, Springer (ISBN 9781349181629), page 186

     The materiality and complexity of history is absorbed into the most abstract idea which periodizes history into a series of 'zeitgeisten'.

Usage notes

zeitgeisten is sometimes seen used as a plural form; however, the German term is never pluralized.

Synonyms

• spiritus mundi
• temper of the times
• tenor of the times

Translations

the spirit of the age

• Arabic: رُوح اَلْعَصْر‏‎ m (rūḥ al-ʿaṣr)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 時代精神 (zh), 时代精神 (zh) (shídài jīngshén)

• Danish: tidsånd c, zeitgeist c
• Dutch: tijdgeest (nl) m
• Faroese: tíðarandi m
• Finnish: ajan henki
• French: esprit du temps m
• German: Zeitgeist (de) m
• Hebrew: צייטגייסט‏‎ (he) (tsáitgaist)
• Hungarian: korszellem (hu)

• Icelandic: tíðarandi m
• Japanese: 時代精神 (じだいせいしん, jidai-seishin)
• Luxembourgish: Zäitgeescht m
• Portuguese: zeitgeist m
• Romanian: spiritul epocii n, spiritul vremii n
• Russian: дух вре́мени m (dux vrémeni)
• Serbo-Croatian: дух времена m, duh vremena m
• Spanish: ánimo de la época m
• Swedish: tidsanda (sv) c
• Yiddish: צײַטגײַסט‏‎ m (tsaytgayst)

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Danish

Etymology

From German Zeitgeist.

Noun

zeitgeist c (singular definite zeitgeisten, not used in plural form)

1. zeitgeist
   • 2013, Lars Holger Holm, Kenneth Maximilian Geneser, Gotisk (ISBN 9781907166310), page 140

     De bliver dermed til et fænomen i tiden, til tidsbilleder, som kan tydes og bruges i en afsøgning af zeitgeisten.

     They thus become a phenomenon of the time, time-images, that may be deciphered and used in an investigation of the zeitgeist.

   • 2010, Henrik List, Sidste nat i kødbyen, Lindhardt og Ringhof (ISBN 9788711410295)

     Og hvem ville så bryde sig om at være lyseslukker til zeitgeistens swingerfest? Hvem ville så sige nej tak til en plads i VIP-afdelingen til den store, subkulturelle love-in?

     And who would then like to be a party-pooper at the swinger's party of the zeitgeist? Who would then refuse a spot in the VIP section at the big, subcultural love-in?

Declension

Declension of zeitgeist

common gender	Singular
	indefinite	definite
nominative	zeitgeist	zeitgeisten
genitive	zeitgeists	zeitgeistens

Synonyms

• tidsånd

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Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowing from German Zeitgeist.

Noun

zeitgeist m (plural zeitgeists)

1. (sociology) zeitgeist (the dominant set of ideals and beliefs of an era)