View source for Wetwork

{{Short description|Euphemism for murder or assassination}}
{{Redirect|Wetworks|the comic series|Wetworks (comics)|the novel|Wetworks (Judge Dredd novel)}}
'''Wetwork''' ({{lang-rus|мокрое дело|mokroye delo}})<ref>{{ cite book | author = Becket, Henry S. A. | title = The Dictionary of Espionage: Spookspeak into English | publisher = Stein & Day | year = 1986 }}</ref> is a [[euphemism]] for [[murder]] or [[assassination]] that alludes to spilling blood.<ref>[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wet%20work wet work]. Definition on Merriam-Webster (accessed Feb 2024)</ref> The expression and the similar ''wet job'', ''wet affair'', or ''wet operation'' are all [[calque]]s of [[Russian language|Russian]] terms for such activities and can be traced to [[fenya|criminal slang]] from at least the 19th century<ref>{{ cite book | author = Maksimov, S. V. | chapter = Музыка или словарь карманников, т. е. столичных воров (Music or a dictionary of pickpockets, i.e. metropolitan thieves) | title = Сибирь и каторга | trans-title = Siberia and Hard Labor | publisher = S. V. Maksimov | location = СПб. | date = 1869 | language = Russian }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | author = Dubyagin, Yu. | year = 1991 | title = Толковый словарь уголовных жаргонов | trans-title = Dictionary of Criminal Slang | location = Moscow | publisher = Inter-Omni | isbn = 5-85945-002-8 | language = Russian }}</ref> and originally meant [[robbery]] that involved murder or the spilling of blood.
The operations are reputed to have been handled by the [[CIA]] and by the [[KGB]]'s SpecBureau 13 (Spets Byuro 13), known as the "Department of Wet Affairs" (''{{transl|ru|Otdel mokrykh del}}'').<ref>{{ cite news | author = Barkdoll, Robert | title = Russian Terror Agency Described by Defector | newspaper = [[Los Angeles Times]] | page = 16 | date = November 22, 1965 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | author = Price, Anthony | title = Colonel Butler's Wolf | publisher = Mysterious Press | year = 1972 | isbn = 9780445402249}}</ref><ref>
{{Citation | last = CIA | author-link = CIA | title = Soviet Use of Assassination and Kidnapping: A 1964 view of KGB methods| journal = Studies in Intelligence| volume = 19| issue = 3 | orig-year = 1964 | year = 1993 | language = english| url = https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol19no3/html/v19i3a01p_0001.htm| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100327044025/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol19no3/html/v19i3a01p_0001.htm| url-status = dead| archive-date = March 27, 2010}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Black operation]]
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*{{wiktionary-inline|wet work}}
{{Espionage}}
[[Category:Illegal occupations]]
[[Category:Murder]]
[[Category:Euphemisms]]