thumb|right|300px|Left to right: [[Vidkun Quisling seated next to Heinrich Himmler, Josef Terboven and Nikolaus von Falkenhorst in front of officers of the Waffen-SS, German Army and Air Force in 1941]]

Quisling (, ) is a term used in Scandinavian languages and in English to mean a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force; it may also be used more generally as a synonym for traitor or collaborator.

In the United States, it was used often. In the Warner Bros. cartoon Tom Turk and Daffy (1944), it was uttered by a Thanksgiving turkey whose presence is betrayed to Porky Pig by Daffy Duck. In the American film Edge of Darkness (1943), about the Resistance in Norway, the heroine's brother is described as a quisling.

Verb form

The back-formed verb, to quisle () exists,

In the Doctor Who story Day of the Daleks (1972), the Doctor calls a man who collaborates with the Daleks a Quisling.

"The Patriot Game", one of the best known songs to emerge from the Irish nationalist struggle, includes, in some versions, the line "...those quislings who sold out the Patriot Game"

Max Brooks' 2006 novel World War Z features survivors who lose their minds due to the apocalypse and pretend to be zombies themselves, even going so far as to biting and eating other survivors. These zombie-like survivors are called Quislings.

In the epilogue of Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein, a sign is posted listing available goods and services. One of the items listed is "Jerked Quisling (by the neck)".

21st century

In the early 21st century, the term demonstrated continued currency as it was used by some American writers to describe President Donald Trump and his associates based on the idea that Russia interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump. For example, in a June 2018 New York Times column, Paul Krugman called US President Trump a "quisling", in reference to what Krugman described as Trump's "serv[ing] the interests of foreign masters at his own country's expense" and "defend[ing] Russia while attacking our closest allies". On 10 February 2022, Patten expanded his use of the term Quislings to describe Lam, the Hong Kong Police Force, and the Judiciary of Hong Kong, during a debate on Nationality and Borders Bill.

See also

  • Collaborationism
  • Eponym vs. Namesake
  • Fifth column
  • Mir Jafar
  • Treason
  • Chinilpa
  • Hanjian
  • Malinchism
  • Wang Jingwei
  • Benedict Arnold
  • Jayachandra
  • Robert Lundy

References

Further reading

  • Hayes, Paul M., Quisling: the Career and Political Ideas of Vidkun Quisling 1887-1945 (David & Charles, 1971)
  • Borgersrud, Lars. "9 April revised: on the Norwegian history tradition after Magne Skodvin on Quisling and the invasion of Norway in 19401." Scandinavian Journal of History 39.3 (2014): 353–397, historiography
  • Dahl, Hans Fredrik. Quisling: a study in treachery (Cambridge UP, 1999).