Trojan horse

English

Wikipedia

Noun

Trojan horse (plural Trojan horses)

1. (Greek legend) a hollow wooden horse by which the Greeks gained access to Ilium or Troy.
2. (by extension) a subversive person or device placed within the ranks of the enemy
3. (computing) a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software
   • 1991. Katie Hafner & John Markoff. Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier (1995 revised edition), Simon and Schuster ISBN 0684818620 p. 255-256

     Worse than what could be observed about the program was the fear that it might be a Trojan horse program -- apparently innocent, but carrying a string of code instructing the computer to carry out a specific damaging instruction at some later time.

4. (business) an offer made to lure customers, seeming like a good deal, that has the ultimate effect of extorting large amounts of money from the customer
5. (politics) a person, organization, social movement, legislation, or ideology with a negative agenda or evil intentions under the guise of positive values or good intentions
   • 2003. Krugman, Paul R. The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century (2004 reprint), W. W. Norton & Company ISBN 0393326055 p. 449

     Indeed, it may turn out to be a Trojan horse that finally allows conservative ideologues, who have unsuccessfully laid siege to Medicare since the days of Barry Goldwater, to breach its political defenses.

Quotations

• 1981, Michael R. Hill "Positivism: A 'Hidden' Philosophy in Geography" in Themes in Geographic Thought edited by Milton E. Harvey & Brian P. Holly; Taylor & Francis ISBN 0709901887 p. 48-49

  Thus positivist ideas can slip into geography just as the Greeks slipped into Troy via the belly of a wooden horse. .... Fortunately, the Trojan Horse hypothesis today describes fewer and fewer geographers.

Translations

a wooden horse used by the Greeks

Armenian: Տրոյական ձի (hy) (Troyakan ji) Chinese: Mandarin: 特洛伊木馬 (zh), 特洛伊木马 (zh) (Tèluòyī mùmǎ) Esperanto: troja ĉevalo (eo) French: cheval de Troie (fr) m. German: Trojanisches Pferd (de) n. Hebrew: סוס טרויאני (he) m. Icelandic: trójuhestur (is) m.

Italian: cavallo di Troia (it) m. Japanese: トロイの木馬 (ja) (Toroi-no mokuba) Macedonian: Тројански коњ (mk) (Trójanski kónj) m. Maltese: iż-Żiemel Trojan (mt) m. Russian: Троянский конь (ru) (Trojánskij kón') m. Turkish: Truva atı (tr)

something which looks innocent, placed within ranks of the enemy to surprise them

Armenian: Տրոյական ձի (hy) (Troyakan ji) French: cheval de Troie (fr) m. Icelandic: trójuhestur (is) m.

Russian: Троянский конь (ru) (Trojánskij kón') m.

a malicious program

Esperanto: troja ĉevalo (eo) French: cheval de Troie (fr) m., trojan (fr) m. Hebrew: סוס טרויאני (he) m. Icelandic: trójuhestur (is) m.

Italian: cavallo di Troia (it) m., trojan (it) m. Macedonian: тројанец (mk) (trójanec) m. Russian: Троянский конь (ru) (Trójanskij kón') m., троян (ru) (Troján) m.