"Nihilist and Christian - They Rhyme In German...." From Nietzsche's Antichrist Reference to Epicurus

    Martin - Today I was using this graphic noticed near the end where Nietzsche says "Nihilist and Christian - they rhyme in German....." I wonder if, when you have time, you might comment on that for us. I presume it is true if we find exactly the right words, but I am thinking it is possible that we might learn something from comparing the root words to each other to see if it appears that the two words don't just rhyme, but arose in a similar context or have other parallels. Obviously not a big issue but if you have time at some point would appreciate your thought!



    Full graphic:


    Concepts As Black As Hell

    Quote

    Nihilist und Christ: das reimt sich, das reimt sich nicht bloss. The Antichrist (1888)

    They don't rhyme in the original. Perhaps, he was talking metaphorically. That would be my guess.

    Although, I guess they do end in -ist so they sort of rhyme.

    Thank you for finding that so we don't have to search it out! I guess we can ask Martin to pronounce them both for us and maybe we'll hear something we don't expect. My German is almost as bad as my Greek ;)

    I will pronounce them during our Sunday call.

    In German, -ist is a a very common ending for a person who belongs to a particlar group or has a particular characteristic, similar to scientist, physicist, chemist and so on in English, whereby, however, the German words for those have the in German more common ending -er for members of a profession.

    Nietzsche's rhyme is there but it is nothing deeper than just a pun.