General Discussion

Nazis favored the word ''heimat,'' or ''homeland,'' and homeland defense forces were known as Heimwehr or Heimatschutz in Austria and Germany from the late 1920's.

For several decades after World War II, Germans rarely used patriotic words like ''heimat'' and ''vaterland,'' Hans Dieter Lucas, a spokesman at the German Embassy here, said.

''People then were reluctant to say 'heimat' or to be proud to be a native of Germany, but that is over,'' Mr. Lucas said. ''The term was misused by the Nazis -- the notion derives from 19th-century Romanticism, to mean your roots, the region where you grew up, your identity, where you belong, and that is how we use 'heimat' today.''

For the United States, the political origins of homeland security go back to the 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review mandated by Congress. While no one can remember who came up with the phrase, it shows up as part of a recommendation to put an ''increased emphasis on homeland defense.''

''In the discussions we had about antiterrorism in the building, we used the term 'homeland security' or 'defense,' '' said Kenneth H. Bacon, the former Pentagon spokesman. ''It does sort of have Germanic implications to it, and from that standpoint, it may carry unfortunate baggage, but I think it's descriptive.''