troll vs. trawl [was: Re: list index()]

[David Naughton]

On Fri, Aug 31, 2007 at 10:27:34AM +0100, Richie Hindle wrote:
> 
> [Carsten]
> > .................. If we start labeling
> > people, this thread will earn you a label that rhymes with "roll".
> 
> [Hendrik]
> > weird this - maybe a native English speaker can comment - 
> > when I pronounce what fishermen do - it rhymes with roll,
> > but when I am talking about the thing that lives under bridges
> > and munches goats, the "O" sound is shorter, and more 
> > towards the back of my mouth.
> 
> But - the word for someone who posts to the internet with the intention of
> stirring up trouble derives from the word for what fishermen do, not from
> the word for something that lives under a bridge.  It derives from "trolling
> for suckers" or "trolling for newbies".

Many thesauri list the 'troll' as a synonym of 'trawl'. Given their
etymologies...

1. 'trawl' is 'probably from L. tragula "dragnet."'
  -- <URL: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=trawl>

2. <blockquote>

troll (v.) 
    1377, "to go about, stroll," later (c.1425) "roll from side to side,
trundle," from O.Fr. troller, a hunting term, "wander, to go in quest of
game without purpose," from a Gmc. source (cf. O.H.G. trollen "to walk
with short steps"), from P.Gmc. *truzlanan. Sense of "sing in a full,
rolling voice" (first attested 1575) and that of "fish with a moving
line" (1606) are both extended technical applications of the general
sense of "roll, trundle," the latter perhaps confused with trail or
trawl. Fig. sense of "to draw on as with a moving bait, entice, allure"
is from 1565. Meaning "to cruise in search of sexual encounters" is
recorded from 1967, originally in homosexual slang.

</blockquote>

  -- <URL: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=troll>

... it was probably inevitable that 'troll' and 'trawl' become
synonymous.

David
 
> -- 
> Richie Hindle
> richie at entrian.com