# Wetwork

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{{Short description|Euphemism for murder or assassination}}
{{Redirect|Wetworks|the comic series|Wetworks (comics)|the novel|Wetworks (Judge Dredd novel)}}
'''Wetwork''' ({{langx|ru|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>, (colloquial: {{langx|ru|мокруха|mokrukha|label=}}) is a [euphemism](/source/euphemism) for [murder](/source/murder) or [assassination](/source/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](/source/calque)s of [Russian](/source/Russian_language) terms for such activities and can be traced to [criminal slang](/source/fenya) 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](/source/robbery) that involved murder or the spilling of blood.

The operations are reputed to have been handled by the [CIA](/source/CIA) and by the [KGB](/source/KGB)'s SpecBureau 13 (Spets Byuro 13), known as the "Department of Wet Affairs" (''{{Transliteration|ru|Otdel mokrykh del}}''), or "Department 13".<ref>{{ cite news | author = Barkdoll, Robert | title = Russian Terror Agency Described by Defector | newspaper = [Los Angeles Times](/source/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><ref>{{cite interview |interviewer-last=Williams |interviewer-first=Peter |date=November 1977 |url=https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/87056 |title=Transcript of James Angleton [CIA] interview with Peter Williams |access-date=2025-07-15 |publisher=Thames Television}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [Black operation](/source/Black_operation)
* ''[I Heard You Paint Houses](/source/I_Heard_You_Paint_Houses)'', the titular euphemism similarly refers to a hitman.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{wiktionary-inline|wet work}}

{{Espionage}}

Category:Assassinations
Category:Murder-for-hire cases
Category:Euphemisms

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wetwork](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetwork) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetwork?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.