Quisling

[1][2][3] The word originates from the surname of the Norwegian war-time leader Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), who headed a domestic Nazi collaborationist regime during World War II.

The use of the name as a term for collaborators or traitors in general probably came about upon Quisling's unsuccessful 1940 coup d'état, when he attempted to seize power and make Norway cease resisting the invading Germans.

[5][6] Chips Channon described how during the Norway Debate of 7–8 May 1940, he and other Conservative MPs who supported Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Neville Chamberlain called those who voted against a motion of no confidence "Quislings".

[7] Chamberlain's successor Winston Churchill used the term while addressing a conference of Allied delegates at St. James's Palace on 12 June 1941, when he said:[8] "A vile race of Quislings—to use a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries—is hired to fawn upon the conqueror, to collaborate in his designs and to enforce his rule upon their fellow countrymen while groveling low themselves."

[9] Commenting upon the effect of a number of Allied victories against Axis forces, and moreover the United States' decision to enter the war, Churchill opined: "Hope has returned to the hearts of scores of millions of men and women, and with that hope there burns the flame of anger against the brutal, corrupt invader.

In the American film Edge of Darkness (1943), about the Resistance in Norway, the heroine's brother is often described as a quisling.

[18] A 1966 Peanuts comic strip shows Lucy dragging Linus out of Snoopy's doghouse yelling "Traitor!

[26] In the epilogue of Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein, a sign is posted listing available goods and services.

[28] 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".