October 5, 1998

Deep Throat

I would like to know more about the etymology of "deep throat," as in: "... is based on information from not one but many "Deep Throats," as well as internal documents..."

Ah, another entry where I get to mention porno movies.

The expression deep throat, often spelled with capital D and T, refers to a secret informer, especially one who reveals detailed inside information about a scandal or the like to a journalist.

A few examples: "The point was, no city official or Deep Throat had ever bothered to think of Nicks [a reporter] when something went down" (Patricia Cornwell, Hornet's Nest, 1997); (of a biography of the Princess of Wales) "A suspicion lingers that behind his book lies a British Deep Throat...How, as the best-seller list attests, can objectivity compete against Deep Throat, who never hesitates to cast Charles in an unfavorable light?" (N.Y. Times Book Review, 1992); "Today, I meet my own 'deep throat,' a Government official who has signaled a need to talk" (N.Y. Times Magazine, 1990).

The original Deep Throat was a nickname given to the secret Government source of information related to the Watergate scandal in Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's All the President's Men (1974). The identity of Deep Throat is still unknown, although speculations are commonplace.

The nickname was suggested by Howard Simons, managing editor of the Washington Post, based on Deep Throat, a very popular pornographic film from 1972, with reference to "deep background," meaning that the source would never be identified or even quoted. In the film, "deep throat" refers to the act of taking the penis deep into the mouth during fellatio; the phrase is still used in this sense and in the verb sense 'to perform this act'.

Despite the pornographic origin of the phrase, and the still current use of the phrase in a sexual sense, it is not considered vulgar when used in the 'secret informer' sense.