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Word Origin and History for nihilism =
n.
1817, "the doctrine of negation" (in reference to religion or morals), fromGerman Nihilismus, from Latin nihil "nothing at all", coined byGerman philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819). In philosophy,an extreme form of skepticism (1836). The political sense was first usedby German journalist Joseph von Görres (17761848). Turgenev used theRussian form of the word ( nigilizm) in "Fathers and Children" (1862) andclaimed to have invented it. With a capital N-, it refers to the Russianrevolutionary anarchism of the period 1860-1917, supposedly so calledbecause "nothing" that then existed found favor in their eyes.
Nihilism is the total rejection of established laws and institutions, total and absolute destructiveness, especially toward the world atlarge and including oneself:
