zeitgeber

n. a naturally occurring cue, such as light or temperature, which regulates biological rhythms; something which influences or regulates the timing or rhythm of something else. Subjects: English, German, Germany, Biology, Science, Jargon

Etymological Note: zeit ‘time’ + geber ‘giver.’ Coined by Jürgen Aschoff, ca. 1954.

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Citations: 1958 Colin Pittendrigh, Victor Bruce, Peter Kaus Proceedings of the Natl. Acad. of Sciences (US) (Sept. 15) “On the Significance of Transients in Daily Rhythms” vol. 44, no. 9, p. 966: Light and temperature are the only periodic or quasi-periodic environmental variables to which endogenous oscillation can be coupled: in nature they entrain the endogenous oscillation, thereby controlling period and establishing appropriate phase. They are, to use Aschoff’s phrase, the principal Zeitgeber. 1962 Miklos D. F. Udvardy American Midland Naturalist (Apr.) “Biology and Comparative Physiology of Birds” vol. 67, no. 2, p. 507-8: No reference is made to diurnal activity, Orstreue, Zeitgeber, and other terms of the last thirty years. 2003 Franz Halberg Journal of Circadian Rhythms (Sept. 24) “Transdisciplinary unifying implications of circadian findings in the 1950s”: All three of us redefined our terms, they a zeitgeber and I a synchronizer (as primary or secondary), respectively, as an external agent, usually a cycle that does not “give” time and merely synchronizes existing body time with its own. 2004 Alison Stein Wellner Inc.com (New York City) (June) “The Time Trap” p. 42: All companies exist in a cacophony of competing time rhythms, relentlessly drummed out by, among others, suppliers, clients, and competitors…These “external pacers” are known among academics as zeitgebers—German for “time givers”and they exert tremendous influence on your company. Zeitgebers can include anything from the fiscal year to the production schedule of a supplier to the school calendar in your community, and every company possesses a unique set of them. The more activities in your organization are synchronized with a particular zeitgeber, the more you’re “entrained” to it.

Posted 6 Jun 04 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

what does the biological organizion mean. I need a definnion of the word?

by chelsea 19 Oct 06, 0713 GMT