I know that in German, “Zeit” means time and “Geist” means spirit or ghost.
YES BUT in philosophy ZEITGEIST [ONE WORD, NOT 2 WORDS!]is a conceptual theory and has nothing to do with the actual separate word meanings.
For example,
Kant`s “Categorical Imperative” is a philosophical theoretical concept and has nothing to do with “categories” nor is it a command, an i.e. an “imperative”.
The Categorical Imperative is a dispositional method of giving paths to test the right or wrong of happenings in life and to criticize and ascertain the true good or evil of the latter. A direct command [imperative]to do exact deeds it is not.
It is a philosophical theoretical concept. as is “ZEITGEIST”=
ZEITGEIST has nothing to do with the separate meanings of the separate words. But together as ONE WORD, ZEITGEIST, IT HAS BEEN ASCRIBED A PHILOSOPHICAL MEANING BY PHILOSPHERS
< and it just ain`t “Spirit of the times”, which sounds like an advertisement for coca cola.