Is there an English variant of "Zeitgeist" other than "spirit of the times"?

Is there a cut-and-dry English word that means the same, or roughly the same, as the German word "Zeitgeist," other than its literal meaning of "spirit of the times"?

I've grown sour on its presence in conversational English due to heavy use as a clever buzzword and would like to know if there is a simpler alternative.

The thesaurus answer gives some terms, but what's more interesting to me is the antonym old-fashioned. Based on that, I'd go with antonyms of old-fashioned which bring up such terms as contemporary, fresh, and in vogue. All of those terms, and especially the synonyms to in vogue work well.

In somewhat of a self-referential point of view, the use of the zeitgeist is pretty much in vogue today as the latest thing to discuss and, to turn a phrase, "word drop". At least, that's what my new friends who are all into Zeitgeist like to say.

Among the suggested synonyms I think two of them may come close to the notion of 'spirit of time':

atmosphere:

• A dominant intellectual or emotional environment or attitude: the atmosphere of the 50s.

feeling:

• an impression or mood; atmosphere: the feeling of a foreign city.