the.com/fifth column
The enemy you host rent-free, already inside the walls, smiling at dinner.
means A group within a country or organization that secretly works to undermine it from the inside, aiding an outside enemy.
from The phrase comes from the Spanish Civil War, coined in 1936 by Nationalist general Emilio Mola. As four columns of his troops advanced on Madrid, he supposedly declared that a 'fifth column' of sympathizers already inside the city would rise up and attack from within. True or apocryphal in its exact wording, the term caught on instantly and spread into English within months, becoming the standard word for secret saboteurs and sympathizers hiding among the population they mean to betray.
- origin
- Spanish general boasted four armies plus secret sympathizers inside Madrid
- war
- coined during the Spanish Civil War, 1936
- tactic
- sabotage by disguise, not force
- irony
- most damage done by people who belong there