zeit·geist
Pronunciation: 'tsIt-"gIst, 'zIt
Function: noun
Etymology: German, from Zeit (time) + Geist (spirit)
Date: 1884
Meaning: general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era

They stole our word! one might cry were they to, say, write for a transcontinental blog about that wields this word with reckless abandon yet with the precision of a samurai sword. First it was the NYT, then it was Spiegel International, then the Smashing Pumpkins, now Google! The nerve. We're kidding, of course, like we were when Billy Corgan decided to name his last album that with a Statue of Liberty sinking in a sea of red. And to be honest, Google has been doing its annual zeitgeist thang since 2001 as its index of the fastest gaining search terms in a period of time (technically they should use "Zeitperioden"). Now with its year-end version just in, one has to ask: who is Vanessa Hudgens, anyway?

Zeitgeist is one of the most popular German loan words in the English language along with angst, kindergarten and leitmotif. These words are morphed into the anglo world for good reason and for something German is not normally credited for: they say something in one word that would take several words in English. Why don't we import "übermorgen" into English to replace "the day after tomorrow" while we're at it?

Check it out: the big G in the sky is also compiling monthly worldwide zeitgeisten for rapidly accelerating search terms. Last month when the Brits were feverishly typing in "subaru impreza" the Germans were looking for "w880i" cell phones.