Zeitgeist

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Word of the Day: Zeitgeist

You know, I’ve added quite a few French and Latin loanwords here in this blog post but a few German ones.

Today we’ll look at the word zeitgeist.

First off, we should get the pronunciation correct.

The ‘z’ is pronounced as ‘ts,’ like at the end of ‘sweets,’ so it’s pronounced TSeitgeist.

Zeitgeist means the spirit of the times.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can examine the word’s meaning and use.

Zeitgeist comprises two words, zeit meaning time and geist meaning ghost or spirit.

Put them together, and you get the spirit of the times.

As the years roll by, the ideas, beliefs, feelings, etc., of the people alive during that period in history also change.

We all know that the 1960s was the time of free love, peace demonstrations and women burning their bras.

The seventies was the time for disco fever, John Travolta, sideburns and bellbottoms.

When we look back at an era, especially when we listen to the popular music of the day, we can experience or relive the zeitgeist.

It’s nice to reminisce and talk about how things were back in the day.

For me, the best times were from about 1993 ~ 2003.

Grunge music was popular, as were the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Californication.

The zeitgeist then included the Dotcom boom and getting your first Yahoo or Hotmail email addresses.

It was a period of peace and freedom after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

International travel was so easy then.

I could carry a pocketknife on planes, and no one x-rayed my shoes.

People used phone cards to call home from public payphones because no one had a cell phone.

But I’m waxing nostalgic now.

What will be the zeitgeist of current times?

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

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