zeitgeist

See also: Zeitgeist

English

WOTD – 23 October 2006

Alternative forms

• Zeitgeist

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Zeitgeist (literally “time-spirit”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtsaɪtˌɡaɪst/, /ˈzaɪtˌɡaɪst/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

zeitgeist (plural zeitgeists or zeitgeister or zeitgeisten)

1. The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period.

   Synonyms: spiritus mundi, temper of the times, tenor of the times

   • 1958, Martin Luther King Jr., “Rosa Parks' Arrest”, in Stride Toward Freedom:

     She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn. She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny. She had been tracked down by the Zeitgeist—the spirit of the time.

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

     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.

   • 2007 December 9, Scott Timberg, quoting Annalee Newitz, “The descent of a sci-fi guru”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1]:

     [Robert] Heinlein’s gift was to catch the zeitgeist. “That’s what made him so successful, but it makes his work seem dated.”

   • 2014 February 10, Anthony Faiola, “Swiss vote to limit foreign workers captures growing European fears about immigration”, in The Washington Post‎^[2], archived from the original on 2014-02-11:

     The vote also stoked fears that Swiss citizens were reflecting the zeitgeist across Europe, where right-wing populists increasingly are seizing the spotlight with an anti-immigration political agenda.

Usage notes

• The German term, Zeitgeist, is commonly not pluralized. Geist (“ghost, spirit”) however has the plural Geister.

Derived terms

• zeitgeisty

See also

• sign of the times

Translations

the spirit of the age

• Arabic: رُوح الْعَصْر‎ (ar) m (rūḥ al-ʿaṣr)
• Armenian: ժամանակի ոգի (žamanaki ogi)
• 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, air du temps (fr) 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
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tidsånd (no) m

  Nynorsk: tidsånd f

• Polish: Zeitgeist (pl) 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)

Further reading

• zeitgeist on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Danish

Alternative forms

• Zeitgeist

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, 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

     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

Borrowed from German Zeitgeist.

Noun

zeitgeist m (plural zeitgeists)

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