zeitgeber, n.

zeitgeber
http://www.oed.com/dictionary/zeitgeber_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_use
Revised 2018

# zeitgebernoun

## Earlier version

- zeitgeber in OED Second Edition (1989)

## Factsheet

### What does the noun zeitgeber mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zeitgeber. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

### How common is the noun zeitgeber?

About 0.03occurrences per million words in modern written English

1960 | 0.031
1970 | 0.031
1980 | 0.03
1990 | 0.03
2000 | 0.036
2010 | 0.036

### How is the noun zeitgeber pronounced?

#### British English

/ˈtsʌɪtɡeɪbə/
TSIGHT-gay-buh
/ˈzʌɪtɡeɪbə/
ZIGHT-gay-buh

#### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪtˌɡeɪbər/
ZIGHT-gay-buhr
/ˈtsaɪtˌɡeɪbər/
TSIGHT-gay-buhr

### Where does the noun zeitgeber come from?

Earliest known use

1950s

The earliest known use of the noun zeitgeber is in the 1950s.

OED's earliest evidence for zeitgeber is from 1958, in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences U.S.A.

zeitgeber is a borrowing from German.

Etymons: German Zeitgeber.

### Nearby entries

1. Zeelandish, adj. 1593–
2. Zeeman, n. 1897–
3. zeep, n. 1878–
4. zeep, v. 1886–
5. zeeping, adj. 1895–
6. zef, adj. 1990–
7. zegadine, n. 1651–
8. zeilanite, n. 1815–
9. zein, n. 1820–
10. Zeiss, n. 1876–
11. zeitgeber, n.1958–
12. zeitgeist, n. 1848–
13. zeitgeisty, adj. 1966–
14. zek, n. 1968–
15. zelant, n. 1624–26
16. zelatrice, n. 1874–
17. zelatrix, n. 1865–
18. Zeldovich, n. 1956–
19. Zelig, n. 1984–
20. Zelig-like, adj. 1983–
21. zelkova, n. 1836–

## Etymology

### Summary

A borrowing from German.
Etymon: German Zeitgeber.
< German Zeitgeber (J. Aschoff 1954, in Naturwissenschaften vol. 41 49) < Zeit time (see tide n.) + Geber giver (see giver n.…
< German Zeitgeber (J. Aschoff 1954, in Naturwissenschaften vol. 41 49) < Zeit time (see tide n.) + Geber giver (see giver n.).

### Notes

In the unchanged plural form zeitgeber after the German plural form.

## Meaning & use

Physiology.

1. 1958–
   An agent or rhythmically occurring event, esp. an environmental influence, which acts as a cue in the regulation of an organism's circadian rhythms.
   1. 1958

      > They are, to use Aschoff's phrase, the principal Zeitgeber.

      Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. vol. 44 966
   2. 1964

      > The change of light and dark or alternations of high and low temperatures have a synchronizing effect on the endodiurnal rhythm; they function as ‘Zeitgeber’ (cues, synchronizers).

      E. Bünning, Physiol. Clock ii. 9
   3. 1975

      > It is clear that pentobarbital can be a very strong zeitgeber.

      Science 20 June 1214/3
   4. 1983

      > The same ‘zeitgebers’ can have opposite effects, depending on what point in the circadian cycle they are consumed or experienced.

      Washington Post 1 April d5/6
   5. 2015

      > Other zeitgebers include exercise, food, and social activities.

      R. B. Berry & M. H. Wagner, Sleep Med. Pearls (ed. 3) xl. 626/2
   physiology
   1. stimulus 1793–
      Physiology. Something that excites an organ or tissue to a specific activity or function; a material agency that produces a reaction in an organism.
   2. irritant 1802–
      An irritant substance, body, or agency; in Pathology a poison, etc. which produces irritation; in Physiology and Biology anything that stimulates…
   3. stimulant 1880–
      Something that excites an organ to its functional activity. (Cf. A.2b) rare.
   4. cue 1931–
      figurative. A stimulus or signal to perception, articulation, or other physiological response.
   5. zeitgeber 1958–
      An agent or rhythmically occurring event, esp. an environmental influence, which acts as a cue in the regulation of an organism's circadian rhythms.
   View in Historical Thesaurus

## Pronunciation

### British English

/ˈtsʌɪtɡeɪbə/
TSIGHT-gay-buh
/ˈzʌɪtɡeɪbə/
ZIGHT-gay-buh

### U.S. English

/ˈzaɪtˌɡeɪbər/
ZIGHT-gay-buhr
/ˈtsaɪtˌɡeɪbər/
TSIGHT-gay-buhr

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

##### Consonants

- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

##### Vowels

- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)

##### Other symbols

- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here.

####

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

##### Consonants

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige

##### Vowels

- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot

## Forms

### Inflections

Plural: zeitgebers, unchanged

## Frequency

zeitgeber typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.

zeitgeber is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

### Frequency of zeitgeber, n., 1960–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
1960 | 0.031
1970 | 0.031
1980 | 0.03
1990 | 0.03
2000 | 0.036
2010 | 0.036

### Frequency of zeitgeber, n., 2017–2024

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.

Period | Frequency per million words
--- | ---
2017 | 0.0013
2018 | 0.001
2019 | 0.0018
2020 | 0.0026
2021 | 0.0043
2022 | 0.0054
2023 | 0.0068
2024 | 0.0075

zeitgeber, n. was revised in June 2018.

zeitgeber, n. was last modified in July 2023.