WORD OF THE DAY
Zeitgeist is the spirit or essence of a particular time. In the 1920s, flappers and speakeasies contributed to that era's Zeitgeist.
Zeitgeist is a word that comes straight from German — zeit means "time" and geist means spirit, and the "spirit of the time" is what's going on culturally, religiously, or intellectually during a certain period. Think about how something like Woodstock symbolized the 1960s: Woodstock was part of the Zeitgeist of the 1960s. Whatever seems particular to or symbolic of a certain time is likely part of its Zeitgeist.
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Vocabulary lists containing Zeitgeist
Imprisoned in April, 1963 for protesting segregation, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote this letter to affirm that nonviolent civil disobedience was essential to achieving the goals of the Civil Rights Movement. Read the full text of the letter here.
Rap artists are often maligned for their subject matter and dismissed for their use of profanity, as if curses are the only words rappers know. Here, inspired by Matt Daniels' compilation of data on the breadth of rappers vocabularies ( available here) we take another view and explore the rappers who use advanced vocabulary to get their points across. The words below range from medical terminology to biblical reference by way of Thomas Hobbes, so it may be time to really listen to what these rappers have to say.
As you read Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," learn this word list. Here are links to lists for texts in Grade 10's Collection 6: Letter from Birmingham Jail, Revolution 2.0, Letter to Viceroy, Lord Irwin, The Briefcase, Cloudy Day
No time to scour the headlines or watch the news? No problem! We’ve rounded up the top words heard, read, debated, and discussed this week. This week was a week with events that set up future, bigger events. The impasse that led to the government shutdown has been resolved, but only temporarily, as another deadline for action looms in February. The titanic ruckus that is The Super Bowl and (the hype surrounding it) is all set, but the game itself isn't until February 4th. The Oscar nominations were announced, potentially placing us all in a surreal vortex of glamorous outfits on even more glamorous movie stars, but we'll have to wait for the ceremony on March 4th. Take a look back at the week that was, vocabulary style.
