mole n. [introduced into current vocab. by "John Le Carre" in 1974 novel] a spy who works from within an enemy's government or spy agency; (hence) a person who spies on an organization from within.
One of the many ways we know William Shakespeare was a genius is the fact that the Elizabethan playwright invented hundreds of words and phrases that are commonly used today, from "scuffle" to "new-fangled" to "ladybird."
Which leads us to consider whether John le Carre is, in a sense, a modern-day Shakespeare. Le Carre -- the 84-year-old author's real name is, of course, David Cornwell - created much of the popular spy jargon that intelligence agents use and every English speaker knows. Some of the words and phrases attributed to le Carre are so commonplace that it's hard to believe they started with a living author -- but remember that he published his first novel more than 50 years ago.
While the word "mole" has been used since the 1600s to describe someone who works "in darkness or secrecy," le Carre codified it as the official intelligence-services name for a "deep-penetration" infiltrator, or inside agent. Almost immediately upon the 1974 publication of le Carre's best-selling novel "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," intelligence agents began using it, and this meaning quickly became the norm. The Los Angeles Times in 1978 wrote about "agents who have no ostensible connections to official foreign delegations and who attempt to infiltrate quietly into positions from which they can obtain information. In the trade, they also are known as 'moles.'"
Le Carre, for his part, doesn't claim to have invented this usage. "Surprisingly, when the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary asked le Carre where it came from, he wasn't certain," ad-man and novelist Robert Bruce Cormack wrote on Goodreads. "He suggested asking MI5, but they were clueless -- or acted clueless (you never know with those guys)."
So it went with the phrase "to come in from the cold." "This is usually said of spies who are returning from exile or concealment," OED editor Fiona McPherson pointed out in a 2012 YouTube video. In the video she asked the public to help lexicographers to determine whether le Carre coined the phrase -- 1963's "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" rocketed le Carre to literary stardom -- or whether it already existed in the intelligence lexicon. (Perplexed visitors to McPherson's post, unaware of OED's interaction with Cornwell over the word "mole," wondered why the editors hadn't simply called up the author and asked him if he made it up.)
The Oxford English Dictionary also credits le Carre with making up the term "honey pot" for an operation where an agent -- such as famous World War I spy Mata Hari or, much more recently, former Russian agent Anna Chapman -- uses sex to gain information.
The dictionary also tips its hat to le Carre, a former British intelligence officer himself, with inventing "pavement artists," meaning agents skilled at blending in with the crowd or street scene to follow a target.
OED says the author brought back into usage the word "sweating" to mean using special techniques to get a suspect to spill the beans. Le Carre's official website adds that dictionary researchers are looking into whether he popularized the word "babysitter" for an agent who looks after an "intelligence asset" who is untrustworthy or in danger.
Le Carre's contributions to spy argot and popular culture are in the spotlight right now because acclaimed historian Adam Sisman is out with the first full-scale biography of le Carre. In the book, Sisman goes further than even the OED. He credits the novelist with inventing, among other words and phrases, "the Cousins," "The Circus," "scalphunters" and "lamplighters," all of which are now apparently used by professional spies.
"John le Carre: The Biography" shows us that the novelist's real life is just as fascinating as those le Carre depicts in his novels. Though le Carre described his five-plus years in intelligence work as "negligible," Sisman proves that his subject is just being self-effacing -- and that there's plenty more in the author's life worth digging into. There's a con-artist, larger-than-life father; a destructive, blockbuster affair with a good friend's wife; dust-ups with publishers; and tetchy relationships with various movie stars. Clearly, Sisman had an effective mole helping him out.