trôler

Forms

trôler (verb), also written troller.^[1][2] Middle French treler, traler, treiller (1376) and trailler (1387–89).^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle French treler, inherited from Vulgar Latin *tragulō (“to follow a trail”), from Latin trahō (“to pull, drag”).^[1][2][3][4] The Vulgar Latin verb was formed either from tragula, the name of a harrow or of a hunting tool (a javelin or a net), or alongside *tragīnō, the source of traîner.^[1][2][3] The form troller is explained from a variant *tragullō with a changed suffix, also seen in Catalan trahullar (“to stroll about”).^[1][3] Tilander rejected this and assumed two outcomes of the same Vulgar Latin verb, one giving trailler and one giving troler, without explaining the difference.^[1] The Grand Robert calls the Latin source probable.^[5]

Bloch and Wartburg say it has nothing to do with German trollen, a German word for a way of running used of game.^[3] Littré had compared Picard droler (“to go here and there”), Norman treuler (“to idle”), the German verb and the English word troll.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the TLFi's record the first use is in Jacques du Fouilloux's La Vénerie (1561), of a hound running here and there without any scent; the older treler (1376, Modus et Ratio) meant to seek the game with the hounds without any trail.^[1][3] The GLLF has troller already at the end of the 12th century in the Roman d'Alexandre, meaning to drive an animal here and there,^[7] and Littré quotes trolloit from that poem.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From hunting, the intransitive verb spread to people: Calvin (before 1564) used it for going here and there, a sense that 17th-century dictionaries marked as familiar or popular, and Richelet in 1680 called trôler a burlesque word of the Paris people.^[1][2] The transitive sense “to drag someone about everywhere” is recorded from 1662, and old slang used it for “to carry” (1628).^[2][1] The verb then survived mainly in the regional speech of the west and centre of France.^[2]

In hunting, troller still means to hunt at random, uncoupling the hounds without first locating the animal.^[1] In Canada, mostly as trôler, it means to fish with a spoon bait.^[1]

Timeline

• 1376 – Treler appears in Modus et Ratio as a hunting term.^[1]
• 1387–89 – Gaston Phébus uses trailler in his Livre de chasse.^[1]
• 1561 – Troller is used of a hound by Jacques du Fouilloux.^[1]
• before 1564 – Calvin uses it for “to go here and there”.^[1][2]
• 1628 – Old slang uses it for “to carry”.^[2]
• 1662 – First recorded as transitive, “to take someone about everywhere”.^[1][2]
• 1680 – Richelet records the spelling trôler.^[1][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, popular, dated) To wander about aimlessly, to loiter.^[1][4][7]
2. (transitive, dated) To drag someone about everywhere with one.^[1][6]
3. (hunting) Also written troller: to hunt at random, following one's intuition rather than a located animal.^[1]
4. (Canada) To fish with a spoon bait, to troll.^[1][8]

Word family

• trôlerie
• trôleur
• trolle
• trôlée

Related words

• traîner
• tracer
• traire
• Latin trahō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org