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A
The defining mood, spirit, or cultural climate of a particular period in history, as shaped by the ideas and beliefs widespread at the time.
— OED
B
From the German Zeit (time) and Geist (spirit or ghost), the word entered English philosophical vocabulary in the nineteenth century.
— German etymology
C
Popularised in English through Hegel's philosophy of history, in which the Zeitgeist represented the collective consciousness unfolding through historical epochs.
— Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
D
Still widely used in cultural criticism, journalism, and marketing to describe prevailing trends, sentiments, or dominant themes of an era.
— Contemporary usage
E
Schopenhauer famously rejected the concept, arguing in The World as Will that the Zeitgeist was merely a retroactive fiction invented by historians to impose order on chaos.
— Schopenhauer, WWR Vol. II