different between geist vs geis

English

Etymology

From German Geist (“spirit, ghost, mind”). Doublet of ghost.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?st

Noun

geist (plural geists)

1. Ghost, apparition.
   • 1877, The spiritual magazine:

     The geists eat and drink, but only as geists — not as spirits. ' We have dined,' they say ' sumptuously.' A vapour- ... If dead men tell no tales, their geists will tell them, if they find opportunity.

   • 1996, Stephen Barker, Excavations and Their Objects:

     [...] it makes no difference whether these figures were real, corporeal beings or not, since each one, in terms of Freud's (auto) aesthetic, is a spirit, a geist, a complex function of Freud's worldview.

2. Spirit (of a group, age, era, etc).
   • 1995, Donald Pizer, The Cambridge Companion to American Realism and Naturalism:

     [...] a term badly applied, as the method is neither a historicism (the belief that each era or period has a geist, principle of identity, or a definable sense of destiny) nor new.

Related terms

• poltergeist
• zeitgeist

References

• OED, geist

Anagrams

• gites, gîtes, tiges

Estonian

Noun

geist

1. elative singular of gei

Old High German

Alternative forms

• gheist, keist

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz.

Noun

geist m (plural geista)

1. spirit

Declension

Descendants

• Middle High German: geist
  • German: Geist
    • ? English: geist
    • ? Danish: gejst
    • ? Swedish: geist
    • ? Norwegian Bokmål: geist
  • Hunsrik: Geest, Geist
  • Luxembourgish: Geescht
  • Yiddish: ?????? (gayst)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???/

Etymology 1

Noun

geis

1. plural of gei

Etymology 2

From Irish geis.

Noun

geis (plural geises or geasa)

1. a solemn injunction

Anagrams

• IESG, Iges, egis, gise

Estonian

Noun

geis

1. inessive singular of gei

Irish

Alternative forms

• geas

Etymology

From Old Irish geis, from the same root as guidid (“prays”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???/

Noun

geis f (genitive singular geise, nominative plural geasa)

1. a solemn injunction, especially of a magical kind, the infringement of which led to misfortune or even death
2. a tabu, spell or prohibition

Declension

Quotations

• 1974, Gerard Stockman, The Irish of Achill, Co. Mayo, Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, page 69:

  ná bain le geis agus ní bhainfidh geis leat

  Do not bother with superstitions and superstitions will not bother you.

Descendants

• ? English: geas

Noun

geis f sg

1. (archaic or dialectal) dative singular of geas

Mutation

References

• “geas” in Foclóir Gae?ilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 2nd ed., 1927, by Patrick S. Dinneen.
• "geis" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Occitan

Noun

geis m

1. plaster (substance)

   Synonym: gip

Derived terms

• engeissar

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

geis f

1. genitive singular of geas

Mutation