Slang dictionary
Deep Throat
[deep throht]
What does Deep Throat mean?
Deep Throat is the pseudonym of the key informant in the Watergate scandal who provided information to journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, eventually leading to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974.
It is also a form of oral sex which overcomes the gag reflex, hence “deep throated.” No coincidence there–the pseudonym was in part an allusion to the pornographic movie, Deep Throat, released in June 1972–only days before arrests were made at the Watergate Hotel during the DNC.
Where does Deep Throat come from?
Deep Throat, the film, follows the story of a woman who discovers her clitoris is in her throat, and as a result develops a particular oral sex technique referred to as “deep throat.”
Thanks to relatively high production values, Deep Throat became a bit of a phenomenon. In a 1973 review of the film by Roger Ebert, he calls Deep Throat “pornographic chic” and mentioned that Mike Nichols, the director of The Graduate, told Truman Capote that “he shouldn’t miss it.” The film had become so mainstream a year after its release that Ebert observed a number of couples in the audience when he went to see Deep Throat playing at a Sunday afternoon showing at a movie theater in Chicago.
The pseudonym Deep Throat was coined by journalists, who were humorously making a reference not only to the film title, but to deep background, which is information acquired during reporting that can be used but without attribution.
30 years after Nixon’s resignation, in a 2005 interview with Vanity Fair, Mark Felt revealed that he was Deep Throat. In the early 1970s, he had worked as associate director of the FBI. Shortly before he became an informant, he had been unexpectedly passed up for a promotion.
Examples of Deep Throat
Who uses Deep Throat?
Since Watergate, the term deep throat has been used more generally to refer to any anonymous source who provides potentially damaging information about wrongdoing.
History on the Net
It’s also, as you might have guessed, still used for porn.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Deep Throat like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Deep Throat that will help our users expand their word mastery.