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Jul 9, 2019
This week’s themeWords that aren’t what they appear to be This week’s words eudemonic tradecraft roadstead sudarium otherguess 
A concealment device disguised as a coin
Photo: CIA
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Gargtradecraft
PRONUNCIATION:
(TRAYD-kraft)
MEANING:
noun: The techniques and methods of espionage and clandestine operations.
ETYMOLOGY:
From trade, from Middle Dutch / Middle Low German trade (path, course) +
craft, from Old English craeft (strength, power). Earliest documented use:
1812.
NOTES:
The word tradecraft is not a synonym of Etsy. It has nothing to
do with trading and nothing to do with needlework or pottery either. OK,
in the beginning it did mean skill in a particular craft, but since the 1950s
it’s mostly used to talk about spying skills. One example of tradecraft
is steganography.
USAGE:
“Hundreds more [Russian spies] were exposed by sloppy tradecraft,
such as the use of sequentially numbered passports.” Do Svidaniya Secrecy; The Economist (London, UK); Mar 9, 2019. See more usage examples of tradecraft in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an
adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that
the fear of telling the truth -- whatever the truth may be -- that fear is
the most painful sensation of a moral life. -June Jordan, writer, teacher,
and activist (9 Jul 1936-2002)
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