scalphunter

English

Etymology

scalp +‎ hunter

Noun

scalphunter (plural scalphunters)

  1. A warrior who collects the scalps of vanquished enemies.
  2. (espionage) An agent who vets potential defectors.
    • 1982, Richard Deacon, With My Little Eye: The Memoirs of a Spy-Hunter, page 103:
      There is one class of spook we have not encountered as yet. This is the scalp-hunter, or defector-hunter. Quite often a scalp-hunter will be more valuable than almost any other intelligence operator.
    • 2002, Angelo Codevilla, Informing Statecraft, page 82:
      But agency policy is that the case officer is, in the jargon, a "scalp hunter" who must turn a contact into an agent […]
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