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Friday word: Zeitgeist
Apr. 30th, 2016 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
med_cat(Apologies for being late and also for missing last Friday)
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zeitgeist noun, often capitalized zeit·geist \ˈtsīt-ˌgīst, ˈzīt-\
: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era
Example
His songs perfectly captured the zeitgeist of 1960s America.
Did You Know?
Scholars have long maintained that each era has a unique spirit, a nature or climate that sets it apart from all other epochs. In German, such a spirit is known as "Zeitgeist," from the German words Zeit, meaning "time," and Geist, meaning "spirit" or "ghost." Some writers and artists assert that the true zeitgeist of an era cannot be known until it is over, and several have declared that only artists or philosophers can adequately explain it. We don’t know if that’s true, but we do know that "zeitgeist" has been a useful addition to the English language since at least 1835.
Etymology:
German, from Zeit + Geist spirit
First Known Use: 1835
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zeitgeist noun, often capitalized zeit·geist \ˈtsīt-ˌgīst, ˈzīt-\
: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era
Example
His songs perfectly captured the zeitgeist of 1960s America.
Did You Know?
Scholars have long maintained that each era has a unique spirit, a nature or climate that sets it apart from all other epochs. In German, such a spirit is known as "Zeitgeist," from the German words Zeit, meaning "time," and Geist, meaning "spirit" or "ghost." Some writers and artists assert that the true zeitgeist of an era cannot be known until it is over, and several have declared that only artists or philosophers can adequately explain it. We don’t know if that’s true, but we do know that "zeitgeist" has been a useful addition to the English language since at least 1835.
Etymology:
German, from Zeit + Geist spirit
First Known Use: 1835
