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The Zeitgeist
"Zeitgeist",
a
German loan word, is also found in Spanish, Dutch and Japanese.
Zeitgeist refers to the ethos of a cohort of people that spans one
or more subsequent generations which, despite diverse age and
socio-economic background, experience a certain world view, one
that is prevalent at a particular period of socio-cultural
progression.
The original
meaning was
"the spirit (Geist) of the time (Zeit)", denoting the intellectual
and cultural climate of an era. The German pronunciation of the
word is ['tsy 'tgys] (IPA).
The concept
of Zeitgeist
is associated with Johann Gottfried Herder and other German
Romantics, but is perhaps better known in Hegel's
philosophy.
In 1769
Herder wrote a
critique of the work "Genius Seculi" by the philologist Christian
Adolph Klotz (German Wikipedia article) and introduced the word
Zeitgeist into German as a translation of 'genius seculi'. (Latin: genius
-"guardian spirit",
and seculi -"of the
century").
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