Jane Austen has been suffering horribly on public transit. My copy of Pride and Prejudice is already old and beat up and last week it lost a few small bites of its cover. I picked up iBrain at the library Saturday and even though it is a hard cover I decided to make it my transit book. It is a smallish hardcover so has turned out to not be bad. And the pages are thicker making them easier to turn especially since I have been wearing glove liners and just take off a mitten until I have to change buses.
The book is only marginally interesting but I will stick with it because it is pretty easy reading. I was reading along today on the train (which was very quiet because I think everyone is too frozen in this below zero weather to be inclined to talk much) and I came across this sentence:
Consumers are given a lot to choose from–they can move beyond the bestseller stalls and use a search engine to troll for anything they want, no matter how obscure.
I got myself all worked up about the word “troll,” you don’t “troll” for things, you “trawl” for them. Well, it turns out I got myself worked up for nothing because, according to the Oxford Dictionary on my computer, “troll” is actually, and disappointingly, correct.
This troll is not from the Old Norse, Swedish and Danish and has nothing to do with the Three Billy Goats Gruff. Rather, it comes from uncertain Middle English origins. The word I thought it should be, “trawl” would also be correct to use in the sentence and probably comes from 16th century Middle Dutch. My family are of the fishing persuasion and when I was young and we would go out on the ocean fishing in our little boat we would cast out lines and trawl for fish. Though apparently we could have trolled for them too.
So the dictionary has gone and ruined my fun. Though it has provided, perhaps, some interesting language choices for thought. My family is of mostly German and Scandinavian background and we like to keep our trolls under bridges and our trawling in the ocean. Sometimes, however, the fish are as mythical as the trolls.
I hate it when you get yourself all riled up with righteous indignation and then find out you were wrong. It’s such a let down!
I had something just like that happen the other day, I can’t remember the word, but I got all huffy and puffy until I found out that *technically* the other person was right also. Dang.
However, I always get a giggle when someone is trying to keep me “appraised” of a situation, instead of “apprised”
Oh, don’t you just hate it when the dictionary does that? I’m with you: I’ve always thought it ought to be “trawl” and not “troll” (but I thought, until now, that “troll” was just some stupid late 20th-century misinterpretation). Thanks for the enlightenment.
Yes, “troll” to me is the monster under the bridge in The Three Billy Goats Gruff – I loved that story as a child! I thought the modern version meaning a person who makes comments intended to make people angry or upset to cause disruption must have evolved from that.
Oh isn’t it frustrating when you are all poised to rip something to shreds intellectually and it eludes you! That happens to me, often. My trolls haunt message boards or refer to offspring who haven’t washed much lately!
I think you’re right and the dictionary is wrong. Is that a radical position? Seriously, perhaps ‘troll’ only got into the dictionary with that definition due to persistent mis-spellings by people who couldn’t differentiate between goats and fish. Perhaps the OED just gave up? In which case, it is up to people like us to maintain standards. (Stomps around furiously.)
With that off my chest, may I add that on BBC radio 4 this morning there was a discussion of Thoreau which included a fair amount of Emerson? You might find it interesting. It was on the “In Our Time” programme and should be on the BBC website (bbc.co.uk). Could be a good commuting podcast.
Well, there might be a loophole here, Stephanie. Trawling would be (usually) performed using a net; whereas, trolling is accomplished by trailing a baited line. Small distinction without a difference, perhaps…but when it’s all one has…
Heh. The dictionary can be a killjoy sometimes!
I’m glad you clarified that because not too long ago I remember being uncertain how to use the word “troll.” I think I may have used the word “troll” in the sense of “trawl,” and I’m glad to know I wasn’t wrong. I really had no idea though! And now I do. It’s good to learn things but not always easy, right?
I would’ve thought ‘trawl’ also. Well, harumph. I do like Maggie’s response.
Fern, It’s a terrible let down. Good thing I could blog about it though. At least I had somewhere to channel the energy!
Daphne, I like to be right about words. It’s no fun when both people get to be right
Appraise/apprise is a good one!
Emily, I know, the dictionary has some nerve!
BooksPlease, I love the Three Billy Goats when I was a kid. I’ve heard that usage of troll too. I’ll be it did evolve from the mythical troll. It makes sense.
Litlove, lol, sounds like you have experience with trolls
It is frustrating when that chance to rip something to shreds gets away. It happens far too often.
maggie, oh I love you!
It made me giggle to think the dictionary might be wrong and I might be right. But, alas, I think it has more authority than I do. And thanks for the tip on the BBC Radio 4 program. I am downloading the podcast as I type!
Linda, yes, trawling does typically occur with a net, but you can also set trawl lines that drag out behind the boat. It appears that both troll and trawl can mean the same thing in this regard. English is a tricky language, isn’t it?
Sylvia, yeah. Stupid dictionary.
Dorothy, now you can rest easy and know that whether you use troll or trawl you are correct. I think if everything was easy to learn it wouldn’t be as interesting. Keeps us on our toes
Carrie, you can use either one. Maggie did make me laugh!
It sounded weird to me, too. Now use it three times in a sentence. Sometimes I will put a word in a post not knowing if it is exactly the correct usage and then check it in an online dictionary. I do better than I think, but sometimes I am way off. I’ve learned it’s always a good idea to check–especially when something ‘sounds’ right. Thank goodness for online dictionaries! And isn’t it fun taking public transportation in -16 degree temperatures? That’s what it was here when I left for work today. I bet it was even colder up where you are. Brr.
I probably would have bet money on you being right about troll and trawl! Who would have thought?
That is weird to me too. Other than the hideous creatures in Lord of the Rings, “trolls” to me are the same as Litlove’s trolls – the kind that haunt messageboards soliciting attention by deliberately posting inflammatory messages. I was unfamiliar with that usage: “trolling for something on a search engine.”
I think you’ll find you are actually right.
Trawling and trolling are both methods of fishing. However the expression meaning “to look for something through a large amount of information” is to trawl (as in, the fishing method with a net designed to sift through a large area and catch only what you want). The expression meaning “to try to get a rise out of someone” is to troll, as in, to offer a baited line to a fish and try to get a bite!
People are wrong when they say they are “trolling” for information. The idiom is “trawling”.