English dictionary, thesaurus, translations & etymology
FreeDict.com
noun

quisling

Quiz me More like this

Quisling (noun) means someone who betrays their own country by helping an enemy.

noun
1
Someone who betrays their own country by helping an enemy.
"It is time to clear out the quislings and paid flunkies of city hall and big business." — Tom Reeves, The Scondras Victory (1983)
"The man she cherishes, the man she butterfly-kisses, the man she sleeps curved around like two spoons in a drawer. It is he who is evil, he who is sworn to destroy her, an emotional quisling of the first water." — Will Self, My Idea of Fun (1993)
"He sees off an attack from humans, who have as servants certain quisling apes, former followers of Caesar’s traitorous ex-comrade Koba (a motion-capture performance from Toby Kebbell)." — Peter Bradshaw, War for the Planet of the Apes review (2017)
Vocabulary Flow
Build your vocabulary from words like quisling.
Vocabulary Flow serves the next word, and the next — meaning, pronunciation and an example each time. Practice at your level, or learn English in your own language.
Start vocabulary practice
Test yourself on “quisling” A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage →

Etymology

Named after Norwegian military officer Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), who ruled the Nazi collaborationist government of Norway during World War Two. From Quislinus, Latinization of Quislin, based on the Danish place name Kvislemark. This term first appeared in 1940. The surname is seemingly supposed to mean "one who is from Kvislemark", and is equivalent to Kvisle(mark) + -ing (suffix designating a person of a certain origin or with certain qualities). However, the earlier form of the name, Quislinus/Quislin, appears to have been a fanciful coinage based upon Kvisle(mark) + Latin -inus (“suffix indicating a relationship of position, possession, or origin”), and only later on came to be reinterpreted as containing Norwegian -ing (“suffix designating a person of a certain origin or with certain qualities”). Kvislemark is composed of Danish kvissel (“cleft branch”) + mark (compare Danmark). kvissel itself is a derivative of Old Norse kvísl (“fork [as in a 'fork in the road']”), which ultimately comes (by dissimilation) from Proto-Germanic *twīsilō. Cognates include Old English twisla (“confluence, junction, fork of a river or road”) and Old High German zwisila (“forked implement, twig,

Related words

Frequently asked questions

What is the meaning of quisling?
"quisling" (noun) means someone who betrays their own country by helping an enemy.
What is another word for quisling?
Other words for "quisling" include traitor, recreant, snake, backstabber, collaborationist, betrayer.

People also searched

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · etymology from Wiktionary