It's the Word of the Day podcast for December 31st.

Today's word is Zeitgeist, spelled Z-E-I-T-G-E-I-S-T.

Zeitgeist is a noun. It refers to the general beliefs, ideas, and spirit of a time and

place. Here's the word used in a sentence from Condé Nast Traveler by Olivia Morelli. In appointing

Farrell Williams as creative director in 2023, Louis Vuitton tapped further into the zeitgeist,

refreshing the brand's image and broadening both its appeal and its dedication to cultural excellence. Scholars have long maintained that each era has a

unique spirit, a nature or climate, that sets it apart from all others. In German, such a spirit is

known as zeitgeist,

from the German words zeit, meaning time, and geist, meaning spirit or ghost. This same geist,

when combined with polterne, meaning to knock, led to the English word poltergeist, referring to a noisy

ghost. It's common nowadays to read about something tapping into or capturing the zeitgeist, referring to a noisy ghost. It's common nowadays to read about something

tapping into or capturing the zeitgeist, as doing so often entails popularity or profitability

in appealing to a great many people, though sometimes the zeitgeist of a particular time and

place is only recognized in hindsight, either due to nostalgia or with

the benefit of one hopes greater wisdom.

With the word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski.

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