Nazi

[naht-see, nat-]

noun, plural Na·zis.

a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler and advocated totalitarian government, territorial expansion, anti-Semitism, and Aryan supremacy, all these leading directly to World War II and the Holocaust.

(often lowercase) a person elsewhere who holds similar views.

(often lowercase) Sometimes Offensive. a person who is fanatically dedicated to or seeks to regulate a specified activity, practice, etc.: a jazz nazi who disdains other forms of music; health nazis trying to ban junk food.

adjective

of or relating to the Nazis.

Origin of Nazi

1925–30; < German Nazi, short for Nationalsozialist National Socialist

Related formsan·ti-Na·zi, noun, adjective

Usage note

Nazi in the extended sense of "a fanatical or domineering person" has existed at least since 1980 and parallels the use of the word police in the language police/the grammar police . Though this usage of Nazi is usually intended as jocular, it implies being intolerant of other people’s views and practices. And many people consider any extended use of the word Nazi to be offensive, in that it trivializes the terrible crimes of the German Nazis.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for anti-nazi

Contemporary Examples of anti-nazi

And worth remembering that from the moment the war began, Hollywood was on message with anti-Nazi propaganda.
Did Hollywood Collaborate With Hitler? A New Book Makes Bold Claims.
Christopher Bray
September 9, 2013
The only other anti-Nazi caricatures to appear during the Third Reich were those that were published abroad.
When Hitler Was a Punchline
Rudolph Herzog
May 14, 2011
The film contained strong anti-war themes and was perceived by Nazi officials to have anti-Nazi messages.
Speed Read: The Craziest Bits From 'How Hitler Helped Hollywood'
Victoria Kezra
July 31, 2013
Flash forward to our own bloody 20th century and the Nazi bonfires of Jewish, anti-Nazi, and other “degenerate” books.
History's Greatest Book Burners
Judith Miller
September 7, 2010

British Dictionary definitions for anti-nazi

anti-Nazi

adjective

opposing any individual or group that espouses Nazi ideologies

noun

a person who is opposed to Nazism

Nazi

noun plural Nazis

a member of the fascist National Socialist German Workers' Party, which was founded in 1919 and seized political control in Germany in 1933 under Adolf Hitler

derogatory anyone who thinks or acts like a Nazi, esp showing racism, brutality, etc

adjective

of, characteristic of, or relating to the Nazis

Derived FormsNazism (ˈnɑːtˌsɪzəm) or Naziism (ˈnɑːtsɪˌɪzəm), noun

Word Origin for Nazi

C20: from German, phonetic spelling of the first two syllables of Nationalsozialist National Socialist

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for anti-nazi

Nazi

1930, noun and adjective, from German Nazi, abbreviation of German pronunciation of Nationalsozialist (based on earlier German sozi, popular abbreviation of "socialist"), from Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei "National Socialist German Workers' Party," led by Hitler from 1920.

The 24th edition of Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache (2002) says the word Nazi was favored in southern Germany (supposedly from c.1924) among opponents of National Socialism because the nickname Nazi, Naczi (from the masc. proper name Ignatz, German form of Ignatius) was used colloquially to mean "a foolish person, clumsy or awkward person." Ignatz was a popular name in Catholic Austria, and according to one source in World War I Nazi was a generic name in the German Empire for the soldiers of Austria-Hungary.

An older use of Nazi for national-sozial is attested in German from 1903, but EWdS does not think it contributed to the word as applied to Hitler and his followers. The NSDAP for a time attempted to adopt the Nazi designation as what the Germans call a "despite-word," but they gave this up, and the NSDAP is said to have generally avoided the term. Before 1930, party members had been called in English National Socialists, which dates from 1923. The use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, etc., was popularized by German exiles abroad. From them, it spread into other languages, and eventually was brought back to Germany, after the war. In the USSR, the terms national socialist and Nazi were said to have been forbidden after 1932, presumably to avoid any taint to the good word socialist. Soviet literature refers to fascists.