Re: The word "swastika" was mistranslated & created the "swastika myth"

From: Martin Ambuhl (mambuhl_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 02/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 18:21:07 GMT

rexy@ij.net wrote:
> Please provide the Oxford dictionary info on swastika.
swastika
("swQstIk@, formerly "sw&stIk@) Also svast-, -ica. [Skr. svastika, f.
svastí well-being, fortune, luck, f. sú good + astí being (f. as to be).]

    1. A primitive symbol or ornament of the form of a cross with equal
       arms with a limb of the same length projecting at right angles
       from the end of each arm, all in the same direction and (usually)
       clockwise; also called gammadion and fylfot. Also attrib.

    1871 Alabaster Wheel of Law 249 On the great toe is the Trisul. On
         each side of the others a Swastika.
    1882 E. C. Robertson in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club IX. No. 3. 516 In
         Japan..the cross-like symbol of the sun, the Swastica, is put on
         coffins.
    1895 Reliquary Oct. 252 The use of the Swastica cross in mediaeval
         times.
    1904 Times 27 Aug. 10/3 [In Tibet] a few white, straitened hovels in
         tiers... On the door of each is a kicking swastika in white, and
         over it a rude daub of ball and crescent.

    2. a. This symbol (with clockwise projecting limbs) used as the
       emblem of the German (and other) Nazi parties; = Hakenkreuz,
       hakenkreuz. Also, a flag bearing this emblem.

    1932 ‘Nordicus’ Hitlerism ii. 17 Thousands flocked to his
         standard—the ‘Hakenkreuz’—(swastika), the ancient anti-semitic
         cross in a color scheme of red-white-black in memory of the
         colors of the old army.
    1933 [see Aryan a. 2]. 1941 G. Ziemer Educ. for Death i. 4 A squad
         of Nazi youngsters in+brown shirts decorated with swastikas.
        Ibid. ii. 30 A luxury hotel managed by a Jew... The swastika
         over it fluttered gaily.
    1951 L. Hagen Follow my Leader i. 6 Most of the men in my Sturm wore
         at least part of a uniform, and all I could do was wear a
         swastika armlet.
        Ibid. vii. 266 Our compatriots..clung to their German ways
         and..flew the swastika on our national holidays.
    1967 T. Gunn Touch 15 A silk tent of swastikas.
    1977 E. Heath Travels iv. 113 Along this street had stretched the
         Nazi columns... Gone, now, were the crowds and the bright-red
         banners flaunting their swastikas over the streets.
    1979 J. Burmeister Glory Hunters i. 5 In addition to her national
         flag she [sc. a ship] also flew the Swastika.

       b. attrib. and Comb.

    1934 Ann. Reg. 1933 i. 179 Minor acts of defiance towards the
         Austrian Government+such as..the lighting of Swastika fires and
         the daring hoisting of forbidden Swastika banners under the eyes
         of the police..and the hoisting of Swastika flags.
    1940 H. G. Wells All Aboard for Ararat iv. 101 As regards the olive
         branch incident, it is to be noted that the leaves were
         blood-stained and tied with a swastika ribbon.
    1946 J. Flanner in New Yorker 5 Jan. 46/1 Ten years ago, he [sc.
         Goering] was baying ‘Heil’ as he strutted the swastika-hung
         streets.
    1957 T. Gunn Sense of Movement 36 The swastika-draped bed.
    1960 Jewish Chronicle 8 Apr. 14/3 The recent swastika-daubings in
         this country.

    Hence "swastika'd a., decorated with or wearing a swastika, esp. as
a badge of Nazism.

    1965 New Statesman 15 Oct. 552/3 Buckley has+described the American
         Nazi Party as ‘two dozen swastika-ed cretins who go about plying
         their pathology in the fever-swamps of the crazy-Right’.
    1969 Listener 14 Aug. 225/3 Where do those swastika'd Hell's Angels
         types fit in?

> The Oxford
> English Dictionary includes "hakenkreuz" and it is below. Not that
> it appears to state that "hakenkreuz" was used as an English word
> in the Times in 1931.

The citations from 1932, 1933, and 1934 above suggest that "swastika"
for the Nazi symbol may well be contemporaneous with "Hakenkreuz" in
English. The citations above from 1871, 1882, 1895, and 1904 show that
"swastika" for the sign was well-established in English before 1931.
Further, the definition you quote assumes prior knowledge of the
swastika: "akenkreuz, hakenkreuz . [Ger.] The Nazi swastika."

> So hakenkreuz was a term that translators should
> have used instead of Swastika.

You'll have to explain this strange piece of pseudo-logic.

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