troll (v.)

late 14c., trollen "go about, stroll, wander" (in troll forth); also "roll from side to side, trundle" (early 15c.), probably from Old French troller, a hunting term, "wander, go in quest of game without purpose" (Modern French trôler), which is perhaps ultimately from a Germanic source (compare Old High German trollen "to walk with short steps"), from Proto-Germanic *truzlanan. Related: Trolled; trolling; troller.

The sense of "sing in a full, rolling voice" (attested by 1570s) and that of "fish with a moving line" (c. 1600) are extended technical uses from the general meaning "roll, trundle," the former from "sing in the manner of a catch or round," the latter perhaps confused with trail or trawl. Of bells, "give forth a full, mellow, recurring cadence," c. 1600.

Trawl. Troll. These words and their derivatives are interchangeable in one sense, and not in another. Both are used of surface-fishing, in which the line is trailed along the surface after a boat ; troll is more frequent than trawl in literary use. Trawl alone is used of bottom-fishing with a set-line. [Century Dictionary, 1891]

The figurative sense of "to lure on as with a moving bait, entice, allure" is from 1560s. The meaning "to cruise in search of sexual encounters" is recorded from 1967, originally in homosexual slang.

The internet sense (variously defined) seems to date to the late 1980s or early 1990s and the Newsgroups era, and the verbal use is perhaps older than the noun in this sense. It seems to combine troll (v.) in the "fish with a moving line" sense (itself confused with trawl) and troll (n.1) "troublesome imp supposed to live underground."

supernatural being in Scandinavian mythology and folklore, 1610s (with an isolated use mid-14c. and a Willelmus Trol in a 1212 list of names), from Old Norse troll "giant being not of the human race, evil spirit, monster." Some speculate that it originally meant "creature that walks clumsily," and derives from Proto-Germanic *truzlan, from *truzlanan (see troll (v.)). But it seems to have been a general supernatural word, such as Swedish trolla "to charm, bewitch;" Old Norse trolldomr "witchcraft."

The old sagas tell of the troll-bull, a supernatural being in the form of a bull, as well as boar-trolls. There were troll-maidens, troll-wives, and troll-women; the trollman, a magician or wizard, and the troll-drum, used in Lappish magic rites. The word was popularized in literary English by 19c. antiquarians, but it has been current in the Shetlands and Orkneys since viking times. The first citation in OED (1989) is from a court document from the Shetlands, regarding a certain Catherine, who, among other things, was accused of "airt and pairt of witchcraft and sorcerie, in hanting and seeing the Trollis ryse out of the kyrk yeard of Hildiswick."

Originally conceived as a race of malevolent giants, like the Celtic Danann, by 19c. they were regarded by peasants in in Denmark and Sweden as dwarfs and imps supposed to live in caves or under the ground.

They are obliging and neighbourly; freely lending and borrowing, and elsewise keeping up a friendly intercourse with mankind. But they have a sad propensity to thieving, not only stealing provisions, but even women and children. [Thomas Keightley, "The Fairy Mythology," London, 1850]

"act of going round, repetition," 1705, from troll (v.). The meaning "song sung in a round" is from 1820.