| 词源 |
mole. John le Carré did not originate the term mole, for “an undercover agent in the enemy camp,” we are told by retired in- telligence officer Walter L. Pforzheimer. According to a news feature in the New York Times (Feb. 7, 1984), Mr. Pforzheimer’s extensive library of spy literature contains a rare Elizabethan manuscript that proves the term was coined by Francis Bacon. The sense behind the term, of course, is that a mole burrows underground and sleeps there for long periods. |