Word of the Week: Nazi

There are some words in the English language that have very quickly recognizable meanings. One of those words is Nazi.

The word is a shortened form of the German Nationalsozialist to describe the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, "National Socialist German Workers' Party," led by Hitler from 1920.

My argument for this word is to use it only to mean that. Too often, words get so normalized that they desensitize the implication of their deeper meaning. Calling someone a grammar-nazi (or any other kind of Nazi combination) is both inaccurate and insensitive. While I'm not one to really be on the side of the whole "politically-correct" movement, there are some words that simply need to be nixed from the common vernacular.

Next week I'll be a little less political. I promise.