Q: It's generally believed that the word "Nazi" is an acronym for "National Socialist." But I remember reading many years ago the obituary of a Bavarian wit and writer — apparently a kind of Art Buchwald of his time — who was said to have dubbed the fledgling National Socialist Party "Nazis" when the party first appeared in the 1920s, "Nazi" being a Bavarian slang word meaning "jerk" or "buffoon." The party itself used the acronym "Naso," so "Nazi" was apparently some kind of Bavarian pun. Can you confirm this story? — O.V., Trenton, N.J.

A: The writer whose obituary you read was undoubtedly Konrad Heiden, a German-born biographer of Hitler, author of "Der Fuehrer: Hitler's Rise to Power" (1944) and other books.

Heiden may not have been the Art Buchwald of his time, but he was a serious and widely read opponent of Nazism for many years. We are aware of his claim to have coined "Nazi" in the 1920s, but we have seen no evidence.

The earliest recorded example of "Nazi" is from 1930. The acronymic explanation of its origin, which traces it to the "Na" and "zi" of the German word "Nationalsozialist," is now recognized as incorrect. The true origin of "Nazi" appears to be as a shortening and respelling of the longer word, based on the German pronunciation of "Nati-," in which the "t" is pronounced like "ts."

Our files contain a letter dated 1932 from the German Embassy in Washington confirming this derivation.

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=84056

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