Origins
The word 'troll,' as used on the internet, has a richer and more tangled etymology than most users realize. It draws from two separate English words that happen to be spelled and pronounced identically: the fishing verb 'troll' and the Norse mythological noun 'troll.' Both contributed to the internet meaning, but the fishing sense came first.
The fishing verb 'to troll' means to fish by trailing a baited line or lure behind a slowly moving boat. It entered English in the late fourteenth century from Old French 'troller,' meaning 'to wander about, to quest, to hunt' — a verb related to Middle High German 'trollen' (to stroll, to walk about). The original idea is of wandering or ranging in search of game. By the seventeenth century, the fishing sense was well established: you 'troll' for fish by dragging bait through the water and waiting for something to bite.
The Norse mythological troll is a completely separate word. Old Norse 'troll' referred to a supernatural being — sometimes a giant, sometimes a dwarf, sometimes a malevolent spirit of the mountains or forests. The word is native to the North Germanic languages (Norwegian 'troll,' Swedish 'troll,' Danish 'trold') and entered English primarily through Scandinavian folklore and fairy tales, especially the story of the three billy goats Gruff and the troll lurking under the bridge.
Development
The internet sense emerged on Usenet in the early 1990s. The earliest documented usages, such as 'trolling for newbies,' clearly reference the fishing verb: a troll trails provocative statements through an online forum like bait through water, hoping that someone (especially an inexperienced user) will 'bite' — that is, respond with outrage or distress. The 1990s Usenet FAQ phrase 'Don't feed the trolls' also uses fishing logic: if no one takes the bait, the troll catches nothing.
However, the mythological sense was always hovering in the background, and the two meanings quickly fused. The image of a troll lurking under a bridge, jumping out to attack unsuspecting travelers, mapped perfectly onto the behavior of internet trolls: they lurk in forums, wait for vulnerable targets, and pounce with malicious intent. By the late 1990s, most internet users understood 'troll' primarily through the monster metaphor, and the fishing etymology had been largely forgotten.
This convergence of two etymologically distinct words into a single internet meaning is a relatively rare linguistic phenomenon. It works because both source words share a connotation of concealment and predation: the fisherman conceals his hook inside bait; the monster conceals itself under a bridge. Both wait for their prey to come to them.
Later History
The word has since expanded far beyond its original internet context. 'Trolling' can now refer to any form of deliberate provocation, online or off. Politicians, celebrities, and institutions are described as 'trolling' their opponents. The word has been borrowed into dozens of languages: French 'troller,' German 'trollen' (in the internet sense), Russian 'тролль.' It has generated derivatives: 'troll farm' (an organized operation employing people to post inflammatory content), 'concern trolling' (pretending to be sympathetic while actually provoking), and 'trollface' (the crudely drawn smiling face that became the visual symbol of internet trolling in the late 2000s).
The dual etymology of 'troll' — fishing verb and Norse monster, both contributing to a single internet meaning — makes it one of the most etymologically layered words in the digital vocabulary.