Geists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A spirit or supernatural being, often influencing or inhabiting human emotions or actions
2. A concept denoting the collective intellectual and cultural spirit of a group or society
3. A term used in philosophy to represent the essential nature or consciousness that manifests in various forms of existence

Etymology: "Geists" is simply the plural of "geist," so its history is that of the singular. The English noun comes from German "Geist," meaning "spirit," "ghost," or "mind," and the two meanings it carries in German explain its range in English: a spirit that haunts a place, and a mind or intellect. "Geist" is a doublet of "ghost," the two words descending from the same Germanic source and reaching English by different routes, one through Old English and the other borrowed from German. The sense given here, the collective intellectual and cultural spirit of a group or society, is the German idea of "Zeitgeist" and related compounds such as "Volksgeist" (the spirit of a people), where "Geist" means the animating character of an era or nation. English took up the word in this sense mainly as a loan from German philosophy and cultural writing, so the plural form is most often used when discussing several such spirits, as in comparing the intellectual climates of different nations.

Synonyms: spirits, ghosts, specters, phantoms, apparitions

Antonyms: mortals, humans