I know the part itself was the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which was abbreviated NSDAP... Obviously a mouthful. And I know in German that it's "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" Shortened to National Socialist, or NationalSozialistichem in a weird acronym/portmanteau/abbreviation, NaZi.
My question is, did Hitler and/or early party members (Rohm, etc) ever use the phrase "Nazi," or was that something everyone else called them?
In other words, the swastika, etc, to every day Germans just symbols of the National Socialist party, which was, to them, beginning the "Third Reich" (which to them just mean Third Empire)? Or was the term "Nazi" used colloquially among the people and the party as well?
Thanks!
"Nazi" as a shortening for the NDSAP is of German origin, but it was not the party itself that coined the term. It was its opponents that did so, early in their existence, which was a common way to be derisive in that time. To quote Richard Evans:
The party changed its name in February 1920 to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party; hostile commentators soon abbreviated this to the word ‘Nazi’, just as the enemies of the Social Democrats had abbreviated the name of that party earlier on to ‘Sozi’.
Etymonline expands on this slightly by noting that this specific shortening of the name was popular because "Nazi/Naczi" was previously slang for a fool.
It might be needless to say, but the term wasn't popular with the Nazis themselves! There seems to have been some attempts to 'take control' of the word, so to speak, but it wasn't successful, and the use of "Nazi" was mostly restricted to speakers outside of Nazi Germany.
Nazi was a term used largely by exiles and Anglo-language authors as a term for the regime and its ideology. In German language publications and speeches, "Nationalsozialistisch-" was frequently used. Print would often use the abbreviated NS, or NSDAP when talking about the party itself. In conversation, NSDAP members would refer to themselves as "NaSos" which the movement's opponents would alter into Nazi- which was related to a derogatory word in German for ignorant.
Fun story, my adviser used "Nazi" in the draft of his dissertation and one of his committee took umbrage at using a derogatory slang term in a dissertation. So political correctness can extend to even to Hitler.