English edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from German Weltansicht (world sight or view).

Noun edit

Weltansicht (plural Weltansichts)

  1. (literary) The general attitude toward life and reality that an individual or character demonstrates.
    • 1905, The Bookman[1], volume 21, page 521:
      The Weltansicht of this poem is a distinct vantage for an appreciation of the scientific man's attitude toward the specific question of immortality.
    • 1983, Charles B. Harris, Passionate Virtuosity: The Fiction of John Barth[2], page 54:
      Sometimes they are Copernican in scope, issuing in totally new Weltansichts.
    • 2012, James David Audlin, The Circle of Life[3]:
      The language we think and speak in shapes our Weltansicht, our perception and understanding of the nature of existence, and those who think primarily in terms of the subject (self) acting on objects (things) are more prone to change and take from what and who is around them to their advantage.

See also edit

References edit

  • OED 2nd edition 1989

German edit

Etymology edit

Welt +‎ Ansicht

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): [ˈvɛltˌʔänzɪçt]

Noun edit

Weltansicht f (genitive Weltansicht, plural Weltansichten)

  1. way of seeing the world

Declension edit