kompromat
kompromat – sostantivo
Compromising material – kompromat – is held ready to bring potential troublemakers into line.
Every Russian knows what “kompromat” means. Now, thanks to a graphic section of the unverified intelligence dossier on Donald Trump, the rest of the world does, too.
Stanley Johnson’s latest political thriller Kompromat claims to recount the story of the most audacious geo-political coup since Genghis Khan and his hordes swept across Asia into Europe.
Uno dei termini affacciatosi alla ribalta lo scorso anno è kompromat, contrazione russa che identifica informazioni e/o materiale compromettenti usati per danneggiare un concorrente o un avversario politico. Questa macchina del fango di vecchio stampo sovietico è assurta agli onori della cronaca a proposito dell’attività di dossieraggio – non comprovata – ai danni dell’allora neoeletto Donald Trump; si affermava che il materiale compromettente consistesse, tra l’altro, di un video nelle mani del governo russo che riprendeva Trump mentre s’intratteneva con prostitute durante un viaggio a Mosca, fatto negato recisamente sia dal presidente USA che dai russi. Il termine è entrato di prepotenza nell’inglese ed è anche stato scelto come titolo per un thriller a sfondo satirico scritto dal padre del ministro degli esteri britannico Boris Johnson.
Origini del termine
Si parla di kompromat sin dagli anni 1990, anche se l’attività descritta sopra risale a molto prima. Il termine è formato da komprometirujuščij material, entrambe parole di derivazione inglese, il che fa di kompromat una sorta di cavallo (o prestito) di ritorno.
Traduzione di Loredana Riu
kompromat – noun
Compromising material – kompromat – is held ready to bring potential troublemakers into line.
Every Russian knows what “kompromat” means. Now, thanks to a graphic section of the unverified intelligence dossier on Donald Trump, the rest of the world does, too.
Stanley Johnson’s latest political thriller Kompromat claims to recount the story of the most audacious geo-political coup since Genghis Khan and his hordes swept across Asia into Europe.
A word that was much in the news in 2017 was kompromat. This Russian term for sensitive information or material that can be used to damage or destroy a political or business rival leapt into the headlines when news broke of an unverified intelligence dossier on then president-elect Donald Trump. The dossier claimed, among other things, that the Russian government held filmed evidence of Mr Trump consorting with prostitutes while on a business visit to Moscow, a claim both he and the Russians have strongly denied. The story was sufficient to send use of the term rocketing from obscurity to general use; it was even used as the title of a satirical thriller published last summer by the father of the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Origin
The term kompromat appeared in English in the 1990s, although the techniques it refers to are of course much older. It comes from the Russian for compromising material (komprometirujuščij material) both elements of which are derived from English. This has led some to describe it as a ‘boomerang loanword’, in reference to the fact that a boomerang is supposed to return to the thrower.
