JOHN BRENNAN has been nominated by Barack Obama to run the CIA. Many of the early articles about the nomination, and older ones about Mr Brennan's career, refer to him as a "spook". This, of course, is jargon for a "spy". But I suspect it's entirely journalistic jargon: while hacks use the term with a sort of knowing tone ("we're all habitués of the spook business here"), I imagine that spooks do not, in fact, call themselves spooks. (Professional spies, please feel free to let us know in the comments.)
One of the reasons is the nature of insider language itself. It's designed to be different from what outsiders use. People who work at the CIA frequently just call it "CIA", no definite article. Though in the popular parlance they are "CIA agents", CIA spies call themselves "officers", and use "agents" to refer to the foreign nationals they recruit to help them spy. Johnson reported earlier on a glossary of intelligence terms compiled by Stratfor, a private intelligence outfit, which was leaked. But who knows if Stratfor really got the real inside spook-speak? As the glossary says, "Anyone who tells you about a black op is a liar." Surely that goes for much of the cant that makes up spy language.
I'd imagine "spook" is like a lot of words outsiders use but insiders ignore or hate. Nobody in New Orleans (besides perhaps the tourist board) really calls the city the "Big Easy", just as people in San Francisco hate the nickname "Frisco". I've never heard my IT department refer to a "computer" (it's a "machine", of course). Computer programmers aren't "programmers" and they don't "program": they're coders who code. I've never heard a journalist refer to an "article"; we write "pieces".
I'm sure readers can think of many more examples.
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Further insider terms: Lawyers never refer to anything as a "case". Everything is simply a matter. You can tell an obnoxious corporate type who wishes he was in banking because they refer to their "deals".
"The Human Stain"
An interesting use of insider language would be that of Sicilian mafiosi. To my knowledge, no one that is 'affiliato' would define himself as such: they'd use the term 'angel' (apparently). Bernardo Provenzano would not even use the word Mafia, as 'no such thing exists'. The language of mafiosi has to be secretive to avoid attracting unwanted attention from outsiders and yet well-known, so there is no room for error when giving commands. A quick glance at the past would show how versatile and adaptable their language can be and also how it has influenced Italian so some extent. For example, When you pay protection money, you pay the 'pizzo' which comes from the sicilian 'pizzu' (beak) and the saying 'vagnari u pizzu' (wetting one's beak) which referred to the tradition of giving wine to someone as a thank you for a favour received. In this case, you're thanking the mafiosi for their protection.
To the outside world the past tense of arranging a deal would be "brokered," but in trading for some awful reason it's "broked" (Not a word but standard nevertheless).
I was at a conference a couple of years ago, attended by a number of very senior security service personnel, and overheard two of them in conversation: "Fancy two old spooks like us meeting at an event like this." So the answer to your question would appear to be Yes.
Do spooks call themselves spooks?
I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
I think the term agent is used by the british agencies for people they recuit. Paid salery men are not called agents case officer. I think the americans use the word agent a little differently more losesly sometime times cover direct employees it depends on the contest the word agent is used in. Not as clear as british use.
The terms spooks is derogatory term, it has negative conatations. Although after the uk tv show spooks a british spook may refer to them selves as a spook in sillyness sometimes or in the same way as someother groups deliverly use a negative or silly terms and take as own, kinda as has brand recognition.
The terms also used in the same way i refer to my self as a "crack pot".
When i attended a civil service conference a few years ago. When i suggested that final salery pensions be scapped and people paid career average because cant set wages or do future costsing as well with fininal salery. The person sat behind me called a me a "crack pot"
At the time government had no plans to do this but later when government deiceded to look at this i found it funny.
I also suggested at conference paying people the market rate for difference areas of the counrty. The person said many people will find that offensive. The government also decided to look at this later. Although some suggested I was acting in my "self interest" with the ideas. Its kinda bad etiquette to suggest things of these types as kinda challenging the "enitlement culture" to be fair if was GM or other union worker went to a GM meeting and suggested scrap two tier pay around teh chapetr 11 peiod then would problery of got called more than crack pot.
Some uk civil servants have a sense of superiority less humble that some the staus of civil servants higher in the uk, i would say particular of integelence types sense of superiorty may be although to be fair smarter that typical type. Does not take a great deal to be the "smartest person in a room" in way that on the economist forum it problery would.
Had a few friends apply and someone from st andrews university that does internernational relations . 15 years ago forgien service intgelegence jobs a popular university. Someone joined the cia forgein service or so they said. The camel jacket types and recuiters reccomenedatioin standrews uni.
In respect to word spooks "Inflated people" take offensive easily uk civil service is quite inflated so would expect offense in the way a more humble buiness type that knows can lose buiness tommorow take less offense may be i dont know really. So would think some would take offense if a non intergenlence person refered to an intergelence as a spook if was not a friend and deliverately being silly.
the're called spooks cause they can't spell?
Missing an r rather than adding an r a common misspelling of spoorks ostrich
actually you fell for the obvious but spook and spell are all out of Harry Potter!
The French don't call themselves "Frogs".
Too many agents die to confirm this...
What about insiders in "the oufit" ie, "the Mafia"? Do they actually use terms like "whack 'im", "the vig", "stand up guy" and so on?
I get the impression that if they do use them, they learnt them from watching gangster films rather than the reverse. "Art" imitating life, not life imitating art.
And what do FBI agents call CIA officers...? Probably some juicy euphemisms.
It would be interesting to investigate the vocabulary used by minority insider groups around the world. I know that in China Christians in house churches have a long list of vocabulary from the old Union translation of the Bible which is almost incomprehensible to outsiders.
Yes! I believe MI5 and MI6 might have some toothsome slang for one another too!
I bet MI5 and MI6 have salty names for one another too.
My family converted to Mormonism for a while and I remember missionaries calling Jehova's Witnesses "Jay Dubs". Hardly pejorative, but nevertheless a slang for their competition in the door to door wars.
Considering spook is also a racial epithet, the odds of it being used by spies of color is quite low.
Spies call each other insiders.
Not that I am a spy with such inside knowledge. Oh, no no, no, no.
clearly, the economist employs coders of the software engineer variety, else my double post would not have been induced by the thrice-cursed comment interface...
In my experience, people who call themselves "software engineers" are on par with people who speak of "synergy" or sell medical goods on TV... real code monkeys call themselves Software Developers while they develop projects/products! Also, there are some of us too young to remember punch cards who nevertheless refer to computers as "boxes"...
A few of us, however, hold degrees from engineering schools. I only disparage the use of "software engineer" by those who are not actually engineers.
Software Engineering and Development are two different fields, although those who work in programming usually need to do both. Professional programmers who cut code are Developers. Their technical supervisor or team leader would be doing software engineering, but rarely adopt the title.
> I've never heard my IT department refer to a "computer" (it's a "machine", of course)
Or amongst older IT folk, the even more opaque "box".
I worked with computers of all types for more than 40 years and don't remember ever hearing a computer referred to as a "box."
Perhaps it is a newer thing, then. In any case a quick Google search for, e.g. "linux box" or "windows box" will tell you what I mean.
Curiously I rarely see "Mac box" or "Apple box" or even "OS X box". It seems like "the Mac" is enough, since "Mac" is already a noun.
anyone who calls themselves a coder is really a "script kiddy", otherwise its Software Engineer, please!
If a person doesn't hold a degree in an engineering discipline and is not a registered member of the national, provincial or state professional engineering body, then that person is not an engineer. At best, he or she is a technician or a mechanic.
It's the same as the requirement that a lawyer be qualified by the bar or law society and that a doctor of medicine meet the requirements of the governing body.
Much worse by far? My company recently redubbed all us tech writers "Information Engineers". Even as an "Information Engineer", I think it's a bit much.
I've been a professional application programmer for 20 years yet I hold no degree and I'm no member of some sort of engineering body. However, I resent to be told that I'm a mere mechanic or technician at best.
As a technical writer, I've always hated the title "tech writer." I usually refer to my job as "that thing everyone forgets about until it's too late."
So, call yourself a programmer. There's nothing demeaning about that.
In many jurisdictions it is illegal or contrary to government regulations, as it should be, for anyone who is not registered with or chartered by the appropriate professional engineering body to call him or herself an "engineer". The law and, sometimes, the insurers require that certain types of design, ie those affecting public safety like boilers, pressure vessels, electrical and gas systems, lifting machinery, and so on, be signed and stamped by a "real engineer", one who is a professional. And any company that offers engineering services must have engineers providing or taking responsibility for those services.
How would you like to find that your "doctor" didn't have a degree and wasn't licensed?
It's the same thing.
And I resent some one who is not an engineer calling himself one. It took me four years in a good university plus several years' experience and registration before I could legally call myself an engineer.
If you're not designing or operating an *engine*, then you are no engineer.
What? I'm making an unreasonable distinction based on outmoded definitions? So are you. Software engineering is, in fact, a real thing—my degree is from a College of Engineering. It says "software engineer" on my business cards, in my HR records, and on my resume, and my colleagues and I will continue to call ourselves "software engineers", whether curmudgeonly fuddy-duddies with their old-fashioned notions of who is and isn't a "real engineer" like it or not.
As I said, in many jurisdictions, it is against regulations or the law to call oneself an engineer unless one is a graduate with certification. This isn't the opinion of a curmudgeonly fuddy-duddy with old-fashioned notions (Where did you get the old-fashioned vocabulary, by the way? Very quaint.). It's the law in many places. It may not be the law where you are but, wherever you are, is only a small part of the world.
In some places people and companies who call people "engineers" when they, under the law, are not have run into problems and have been forced to change the terminology. They've also been fined heavily.
If you have an engineering degree (you don't say that) and you're capable of it, why don't you register with your local body? There is a good discussion of the subject here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering_professionalism
When I eventually became a registered engineer it was a real milestone in my life. At last I was fully qualified and legally allowed to carry out my profession to the full.
I didn't say that there was no such thing as a "software engineer". I said that there were certain legal requirements in many jurisdictions to be allowed to use the title "engineer". As there are for physicians, lawyers and other professionals.
And "engineer" does come from the same root as "engine" but so does "ingenuity", which is closer to the meaning of engineer.
In California, an engineering degree is not required. The PE act defines a "“Professional engineer,” within the meaning and intent of this act, refers to a person engaged in the professional practice of rendering service or creative work work requiring education, training and experience in engineering sciences and the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences" In addition, there are only a limited number of engineering disciplines that can receive Professional Status, but other disciplines can call themselves Engineers. Since 'Information Engineer' or 'Software Engineer" are not listed, anyone can call him- or her-self either. We refer to un-degreed discipline workers as Desiginers at my office.
Refer to http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/laws/pe_act.pdf for more detail.
Agreed. I don't see anything that you've said with which I disagree. I did refer to "many jurisdictions" and even those jurisdictions differ in the details of how the regulations are applied and what they cover. In others, there is no regulation at all. There are as almost as many rules as there are jurisdictions.
My argument was entirely with those who seemed to be unable to read or, at least, comprehend, and took my reference to regulations in some places as being merely my personal whim and then became offensive about it.
Thanks for your comments on the California act.
As a professional spy, I usually call myself either a journalist or a lawyer or a student. Whatever provides a good excuse for travelling, not having a steady job and being inquisitive.
If i was spy i would call my self a spy as being a bit auststic not a very good lier
Don't forget the insider pronunciation of words known to outsiders.
Ah!..Medicine has -- at least in North America -- an "insider" pronunciation which has always made me chuckle. When discussing a linear dimension, such as the length of an incision, or the diameter of a tumour, the metric unit "centimeter" has the first syllable rhyme with "lawn", rather than with "pen". Surprised me the first day of med school (1975) and I've never heard it used as such in English except by MD's. Presumably this slight gallicism is a nod backwards to the eminence of the great hospitals of Europe in medical teaching, pre WW-I.
I've never heard a doctor say cawntimeter... do they giggle when they say it? I certainly would.
If they're going to be pretentious about saying "sawn", they might as well say the whole word in French "sawn-tree-meh-treh"
I suspect there isn't as much of a binary distinction as you are making out. Professionals do have to communicate with the laity after all. Once you start using 'outsider' terms they can then gain adoption inside.