[Ads-l] "double agent" = "[single] agent" ?

[Ben Zimmer]

Assuming we're talking about Sergei Skripal, the fellow who was poisoned,
then I don't see what the problem is with calling him a (former) "double
agent" as Wikipedia does:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Skripal

He worked for GRU in Russia, then got recruited by MI6 when he was in Spain
in 1995, then went back to Russia to work for GRU but was really still
working for MI6.


On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 8:14 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> CNN refers to him as a "double agent" as well.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, Mar 16, 2018 at 3:19 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Inflation, like those medium-sized “colossal olives”.
> >
> > Checking the first few cites on Google, I find:
> >
> > an agent who pretends to act as a spy for one country or organization
> > while in fact acting on behalf of an enemy.
> >
> > an employee of a secret intelligence service, whose primary purpose is to
> > spy on a different target organization, but who, in fact, is a member of
> > the target organization
> >
> > a spy pretending to serve one government while actually serving another
> >
> > ...but also this more complicated one, requiring the involvement of three
> > different countries/governments:
> >
> > a person employed by a government to discover secret information about
> > enemy countries, but who is really working for one of these enemy
> countries
> > https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/double-agent
> >
> > Still, none that conform to Maddow’s use.
> >
> > LH
> >
> >
> >
> > > On Mar 16, 2018, at 2:19 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
> > >
> > > Two nights ago, the usually articulate and precise Rachel Maddow
> several
> > times referred to Russians accused or convicted of espionage on behalf of
> > Britain or the US, and expelled or executed, as "double agents."
> > >
> > > But aren't they simply "agents"?
> > >
> > > I've always understood a double agent to be an individual who pretends
> > to be spying on country X for the benefit of country Y but is actually
> > betraying country Y to country X --like the character Dominika in Jason
> > Matthew's terrific espionage novel _Red Sparrow_ (don't bother with the
> > movie!). That is, a spy who has been found out and "turned."
> > >
> > > OED's definition of "double agent" I find confusing: "a spy who works
> on
> > behalf of mutually hostile countries, usually with actual allegiance only
> > to one."
> > >
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org