Saturday, February 18, 2012

Who were the Nazis? this is about the machine gunners.

The previous post is good, but even though a number of sources support the claim, I'm not sure that the name "Nazi" is an blend of the beginning sounds of the first two words in the full name of the party.


The full party name, at least at one point, was indeed "National Socialist German Workers Party." The first word, as it's said in German, is pronounced "na-TSI-o-nal." The second word, again in German, is pronounced "so-TSI-o-leest." The abbreviated term "Nazi" could very well just comes from a shortening of the first word. Otherwise, I would expect the term to be "Naso," not "Nazi."


I've lived and worked in Germany for over five years, speak fluent German, and am certain that Germans still use abbreviated terms like this all the time, such as "Asi" (from "Asozial," an extreme nonconformist). According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Germans used to shorten "Socialist" to "Sozi" and used that term as a model for the newer term "Nazi," although I've never heard the term "Sozi" used.

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