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Apr 11, 2024 · 1848, from German Zeitgeist (Herder, 1769), "spirit of the age," literally "time-spirit," from Zeit "time" (from Proto-Germanic *tidiz "division of time," from PIE root *da-"to divide") + Geist "spirit" (see ghost (n.)). Carlyle has it as a German word in "Sartor Resartus" (1831) and translates it as "Time-Spirit."
noun. zeit· geist ˈtsīt-ˌgīst ˈzīt- often capitalized. : the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era. 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.
How to say ZEITGEIST. Listen to the audio pronunciation in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Learn more.
Definition of zeitgeist noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a Zeitgeist [1] (capitalized in German; German pronunciation: [ˈtsaɪtɡaɪst] ⓘ) ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. [2]
/ˈzaɪtˌɡaɪst/ ZIGHT-gighsst. See pronunciation. Where does the noun zeitgeist come from? Earliest known use. 1840s. The earliest known use of the noun zeitgeist is in the 1840s. OED's earliest evidence for zeitgeist is from 1848, in a letter by Matthew Arnold, poet, writer, and inspector of schools. zeitgeist is a borrowing from German.
Zeitgeist is borrowed from German and literally translates to “time spirit” or “spirit of the times.” It comes from the German Zeit, meaning “time,” and Geist, meaning “spirit” or “ghost” (as seen in poltergeist, which means “a noisy ghost”).
