Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 01:12:43 -0400

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: NAZI--An 1880s dude from Vienna??



What does "Nazi" mean and where does it come from?

OED is not much help. Barnhart's Dictionary of Etymology has 1930 and

states that it's an altered form of Nationalsozialist, based on the pattern

of earlier German Sozi, short for Sozialist, socialist.

Consider this beaten by about 50 years!

I have a huge file on "dude," part of which was published In Comments on

Etymology in October 1993. (American Speech's recent "You've come a long

way, dude" never quoted it.)

A most interesting article which was not published then is "Dudes of all

Nations" from the New York Evening Telegram, February 28, 1885, p. 5. There

are wonderful drawings of the American "dude," the English "masher," "Il

Dudo," the "coon," "ein feiner Hund," "El Petimetre," "Le Pschutteaux," and

one more that puzzles me:



"DER NAZI"



Vienna is the home of this picturesque creature, and he may be seen, in all

his glory, at the concerts. Money is scarce and clothing dear at the

Austrian capital, so "der Nazi" embellishes himself, as much as possible,

with his hair--the air of Vienna appears to be conducive to hirsute

exuberance. Like all other dudes, he has a frantic passion for check

clothing; why dudes adore checks is one of those things that no ordinary

intellect can discover; it is a good topic for the profound German mind to

take up when it has nothing else on hand.



Der Nazi in Vienna in 1885? This puzzles me. Can anyone tell me--is

this the origin of "Nazi"?



(P.S. I'm doing political party stuff. Anyone with pre-1884 GOPs or GOMs,

please send them along, with or without NAZIs.)