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Have You Ever Used the Word "Zeitgeist"?

Gamengai
Hi everyone, I rarely encounter unusual words in my work—and "Zeitgeist" is one of those words that seems to have slipped through the cracks of modern vocabulary. I'm curious: Have any of you ever used this word, or is it just a relic from the past? Whether you recall it from literature, historical texts, or casual conversation, I’d love to hear your experiences. Do you think it still holds any meaning or charm in today's language, or has it faded into obscurity? Looking forward to your thoughts!

23 comments

coxr780•
zeitgeist is actually pretty commonly used to talk about things that are popular right now, things that are trendy. Or at least, its used significantly more commonly than its other Hegelian counterparts weltgeist and volksgeist.
freenow4evr•
I have used it, but not often.
JackRabbit-•
I generally think of it as an open compound word in "cultural zeitgeist", which refers to the general trends of a particular time. In that context - it's very common. You could describe the "cultural zeitgeist" of american politics, or heavy metal, or gen alpha, or this subreddit. Outside of that context I think it is as rare as you might think. Maybe it's more commonly used in German.
45thgeneration_roman•
The word zeitgeist is quite zeitgeisty
BuvantduPotatoSpirit•
It's a bit ... pretenious feeling - a five dollar word when it's rarely necessary - but of course you'll encounter it in the wild from time to time.
Adzehole•
It's not like I use it every day, but it's definitely a part of my vocabulary.
ABelleWriter•
It's a relatively normal word, imo. I probably used it a month ago, before that a couple of months. Someone at work said it to me a few weeks ago.
frozenpandaman•
is this written by genAI? disgusting
SagebrushandSeafoam•
If anything, I think I'd call it overused. It has its place (sometimes it's the perfect word), but its place isn't everywhere. Incidentally, the exact cognate of the term in English would be "tideghost" (*tide* in the old sense, as in *Christmastide*, *good tidings*, or *woe betide you*). Not sure that will ever catch on like "earworm" did for *Ohrwurm*, but you never know what's in the, ehh…tideghost. 🧐
joined_under_duress•
I use it fairly frequently to describe pop culture stuff. I'd imagine that fans of The Levellers would use it much more frequently since it's the title of their fourth album.
ssk7882•
Yes, I've often used it and seen/heard it used. It's not at all an archaic word.
Andirood•
Yes but only when I’m ranting to my wife about politics as we do the dishes. I think after I use words like that to sound smart she stops paying attention lol
UpiedYoutims•
You seem like an AI bot.
sqeeezy•
yes
PunkCPA•
For extra credit, give it the German pronunciation.
pianoshootist•
I'm not German so I just say "timeghost".
Pandaburn•
Yes. This is not an outdated word, I use it and read it regularly in news.
Pillowz_Here•
your post feels ai-generated ngl
dnnsshly•
Far from being "a relic from the past" or "fading into obscurity", "Zeitgeist" is a modern word that's increasing rapidly in popularity: check out this graph from [Google Ngram](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=zeitgeist&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false). Just because you're not familar with a word doesn't mean it's old hat.
OstrichCareful7715•
I’d say I read or hear it at least once a month. It’s definitely not archaic.
amanset•
Yep. Many times.
dausy•
I mainly only ever see it online or if somebody is talking about literature or trying to sound like they want you to know how smart they are.
Nondescript_Redditor•
It’s used