troll

🧌

Meaning

1. a giant supernatural being, especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.
2. (informal) A company, person, etc., that owns and legally enforces copyrights, patents, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights in an aggressive and opportunistic manner, often with no intention of commercially exploiting the subjects of the rights.
3. (slang) An ugly or unpleasant person.
4. An optical ejection from the top of the electrically active core region of a thunderstorm that is red in colour that seems to occur after tendrils of vigorous sprites extend downward towards cloudtops.

round

gremlin

rip out

evil spirit

whirl around

spoon-bait

internet troll

trolling spoon

birle

fisherman’s lure

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tɹɒl/

Partly: * from Middle English trol (“demon (?); sorcerer (?)”) [and other forms], from Old Norse trǫll (“conjurer, mage; witch”), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“supernatural being; demon, fiend; giant; monster”), probably from *trudaną (“to step on; to tread”) + *-ilą (suffix forming agent nouns); and * borrowed from Norwegian Bokmål troll, Swedish troll, or Danish trold, from Old Norse trǫll (see above). Doublet of droll and trow. cognates * Danish fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”) * Icelandic tröll * Middle High German trol, trolle (“spook, wraith; ogre, monster”) * Norwegian fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”) * Swedish trolla (“to conjure”)