fishhook

Etymology

It is formed from English fish + hook,^[2][3][4][5] first as Middle English fishhok.^[3] Fish goes back to Old English fisc and hook to hoc.^[6] The verb fishhook is a conversion of the noun, recorded from 1849.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A barbed hook used for catching fish: before 1387, in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 14th century,^[3][7] and Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word could be figurative, for something that catches or ensnares people.^[2] At sea a fish hook was, from 1514, a large hook for raising the flukes of an anchor to the ship's side, as in the tackle list of the Mary Rose;^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a baited hook for catching fish.^[4] In colloquial use the plural meant the fingers from 1810.^[2] From 1905 the noun was used of a tight curve shaped like a hook.^[2] New Zealand English has used it since 1952 for a hidden problem in a proposal or contract.^[2] The verb, from 1849, meant first to lure or trick someone, then to pull something in as if with a fish hook (1878), to bend back sharply (1903) and to jab as if with a hook (1907).^[2] In the American West fishhook describes sharply hooked plant spines, especially in fishhook cactus, recorded from 1875.^[8] The American proverb "gold is the devil's fishhook" warns that the desire for gold traps people and ruins them.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1387 – a barbed hook for catching fish; also figuratively, a snare.^[2]
• 1514 – a large hook for raising the flukes of an anchor.^[2]
• 1810 – in the plural, colloquially, the fingers.^[2]
• 1849 – verb, to lure or trick someone.^[2]
• 1875 – a sharply hooked plant spine, as in fishhook cactus.^[8]
• 1903 – verb, of a path or route, to bend back sharply.^[2]
• 1905 – a tight curve shaped like a hook.^[2]
• 1952 – New Zealand, a hidden snag in a proposal or contract.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A barbed hook, usually of metal, used for catching fish: He baited the fishhook with a worm.^{[10][7][3][2]}
2. (nautical) A large hook used to raise the flukes of an anchor to the side of a ship.^[3][2]
3. A sharply hooked plant spine, as on some cacti.^[8]
4. (New Zealand, colloquial) A hidden problem in a proposal, contract or law; a snag.^[2]

Verb

1. To catch or pull something as if with a fishhook; also, to lure or trick someone.^[2]
2. Of a path or a moving thing, to bend or turn back sharply in a tight curve.^[2]

Related words

• fish
• hook

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
9. ^ Popik, Barry, The Big Apple, barrypopik.com, p. "Gold is the devil’s fishhook", 27 December 2012
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin