How trolls got into the internet

Hardcore pedants are still holding out against the acceptance of "gift" as a verb (why gift when you can simply give?) but no one seems to mind the omnipresence of "troll".

"Sorry I trolled you" said a friend who'd posted a nasty comment about one of my cats on Instagram. It's not that he hates cats; he was just in a bad mood, possibly because someone else had trolled him.

Like gift, this troll verb was originally a noun. An internet troll, in Wikipedia's words, is "a person who sows discord in an online community by starting arguments or upsetting people".

Just your average social media user, then.

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Unlike gift, troll has been a verb since the 14th century, when it meant "to stroll about". It came from the Old French troller, which was what hunters did when they wandered around the forest aimlessly instead of trying to track down a nice fat rabbit.

The same word also meant "to sing loudly" as one does when trolling around the woods not looking for rabbits.

The internet troll does not stroll or sing. It is the offspring of a scary Scandinavian creature usually shown wielding a large club. "Trolling" is what this beast would do if it were computer-literate.

This column gave me a reason to use my copy of JA Coleman's Dictionary of Mythology for a purpose other than crushing fish moths. It yielded the enlightening information that the troll (droll in Norse spelling) was originally a giant but evolved into a "supernatural dwarf goblin".

I'm not all that versed in the finer distinctions between supernatural creatures, but I found this confusing. In all the fairy tales I have ever read, dwarves are dwarves and goblins are goblins.

I always assumed there was some sort of Mixed Mythologies Act that forbade them from copulating with each other and giving birth to dwoblins.

So what is this "dwarf goblin" of which Coleman speaks? Perhaps he is referring to size rather than species. A "dwarf planet" is, after all, not a planet full of small bearded men fond of pale lost princesses but a celestial body that hasn't passed the necessary exams to be awarded its full planet diploma.

So perhaps a dwarf goblin, also known as a troll, is not a mixed-race dwoblin but a tiny, tiny goblin. Maybe that's how it got into the internet.

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Coleman also says trolls were believed to burst if ever the sun shone on their faces. Perhaps poor little dwarf-goblin-trolls are exploding all around us every day on the hot tarmac of parking lots, but we don't notice because they're so small. Pity it doesn't happen online.

Whether they are great big slavering creatures or stunted goblins, scary Scandinavian trolls and the nasty modern hobby they are associated with have no etymological connection with the strolling-and-singing kind of trolling. That kind of troll is, however, closely related to the words "trundle" - to roll along - and "trend" - to bend in a particular direction.

Trend is a much-abused word. The verb first applied to rivers, but in the 1950s it was appropriated as a noun describing a popular movement in fashion or culture.

These days you can't go outside without tripping over a trend, a trendsetter, trend forecaster or someone who is "on trend". The odd thing about trends, however, is that they tend to burst when they reach critical mass. Just like trolls.

• E-mail your observations on words and language to Sue de Groot on degroots@sundaytimes.co.za or follow her on Twitter: @deGrootS1