zeitgeistnoun
Factsheet
What does the noun zeitgeist mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun zeitgeist. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun zeitgeist?
| 1890 | 0.0017 |
| 1900 | 0.0028 |
| 1910 | 0.0029 |
| 1920 | 0.0028 |
| 1930 | 0.0052 |
| 1940 | 0.0075 |
| 1950 | 0.012 |
| 1960 | 0.021 |
| 1970 | 0.036 |
| 1980 | 0.051 |
| 1990 | 0.059 |
| 2000 | 0.067 |
| 2010 | 0.08 |
How is the noun zeitgeist pronounced?
British English
U.S. English
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.
Etymons: German Zeitgeist.
Nearby entries
- Zeeman, n.1897–
- zeep, n.1878–
- zeep, v.1886–
- zeeping, adj.1895–
- zef, adj.1990–
- zegadine, n.1651–
- zeilanite, n.1815–
- zein, n.1820–
- Zeiss, n.1876–
- zeitgeber, n.1958–
- zeitgeist, n.1848–
- zeitgeisty, adj.1966–
- zek, n.1968–
- zelant, n.1624–26
- zelatrice, n.1874–
- zelatrix, n.1865–
- Zeldovich, n.1956–
- Zelig, n.1984–
- Zelig-like, adj.1983–
- zelkova, n.1836–
- zelotypia, n.1566–
Etymology
Summary
Notes
- 1831
Terrestrial Life itself, with its whole doings and showings, [is] held out as a Disturbance (Zerrüttung) produced by the Zeitgeist (Spirit of Time).
T. Carlyle in Edinburgh Review December 377
Meaning & use
- 1848–Frequently (and in early use usually) with capital initial. The defining spirit or mood of a particular period, esp. as reflected in the prevailing ideas, beliefs, and attitudes of the time; the social or cultural trends prevalent at a particular time.
- 1848
I..took up Obermann, and refuged myself with him..against your Zeit Geist.
M. Arnold, Letter November (1932) 95 - 1889
My business is to incarnate the Zeitgeist.
G. B. Shaw, Letter August (1965) vol. I. 222 - 1946
May we worship neither the flux of chance, nor the wheel of fortune, nor the spiral of the zeit-geist.
W. H. Auden, Litany & Anthem for S. Matthew's Day - 1972
A clear mark of the Zeitgeist of the late 1960's and the 1970's is the increased demand for participation in decision-making by those affected by it.
Science 2 June 991/3 - 2011
Fukuyama did capture the zeitgeist of the early post-cold war years, and his thinking both shaped and reflected a wider body of ideas.
N. MacQueen, Humanitarian Intervention & United Nations ii. 44
the world existence and causation existence intrinsicality or inherence character or nature [nouns] zeitgeist- time-spirit1834–= zeitgeist, n.
- zeitgeist1848–Frequently (and in early use usually) with capital initial. The defining spirit or mood of a particular period, esp. as reflected in the…
the mind operation of the mind perception or cognition faculty of ideation idea, notion, or concept [nouns] system of- philosophyc1387–Frequently as a count noun. A particular system of ideas or beliefs relating to the general scheme of existence and the universe; a philosophical…
- zeitgeist1848–Frequently (and in early use usually) with capital initial. The defining spirit or mood of a particular period, esp. as reflected in the…
- thought model1891–A system of related ideas or images.
Pronunciation
British English
U.S. English
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
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
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
Variant forms
Frequency
zeitgeist typically occurs about 0.06 times per million words in modern written English.
zeitgeist 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 of zeitgeist, n., 1890–2010
* 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 |
|---|---|
| 1890 | 0.0017 |
| 1900 | 0.0028 |
| 1910 | 0.0029 |
| 1920 | 0.0028 |
| 1930 | 0.0052 |
| 1940 | 0.0075 |
| 1950 | 0.012 |
| 1960 | 0.021 |
| 1970 | 0.036 |
| 1980 | 0.051 |
| 1990 | 0.059 |
| 2000 | 0.067 |
| 2010 | 0.08 |
Frequency of zeitgeist, 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 | 0.68 |
| 2018 | 0.65 |
| 2019 | 0.66 |
| 2020 | 0.67 |
| 2021 | 0.69 |
| 2022 | 0.71 |
| 2023 | 0.74 |
| 2024 | 0.76 |
Compounds & derived words
- zeitgeisty, adj. 1966–Representative or characteristic of the…