Hi all
Allen's post made me think of how the word "troll" has multiple meanings, sometimes conflated with each other.
troll, v.
Etymology: A word or series of words of uncertain origin, and of which all the senses do not go closely together. It is generally derived < Old French troller, a hunting term, ‘to quest, to go in quest of game, without purpose’, of which Godefroy has one instance. This survives in modern French (see Littré). Godefroy has also one example of traller, in Littré trôler ‘to lead or walk in all directions indiscriminately, to run here and there, to run about, ramble’.
Senses relating to angling:
Angling. intransitive. To angle with a running line (? originally with the line running on a ‘troll’ or winch); (also transitive) to fish (water) in this way; spec.: (a) to fish for pike by working a dead bait (usually on a gorge hook) by a sink-and-draw motion; (b) (transitive and intransitive), to angle with a spinning bait; (c) (in U.S. and Scottish use, perhaps through association with trail or trawl) to trail a baited line behind a boat.
some examples:
1606 Consider how God by his Preachers trowleth for thee.
1675 Here have I been Angling and Trowling for my Father-in-law, and have had him at my Hook all day.
1831 Trolling, in the more limited sense of the word, signifies catching fish with the gorge-hook, which is composed of two, or what is called a double eel-hook.
1891 Trolling a minnow from a boat in Loch Leven—probably the lowest possible form of angling.
1992 (Usenet newsgroup) 14 Dec. If I didn't know better I would swear that this post bears the mark of the inevitable Peter van der Linden in troll mode.
1995 Posts that are designed to encourage angry responses are called ‘trolls’ because the purpose is to fish for flames.
[This post is not a troll; it's purpose is to entertain]
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