[Ads-l] Slang Sense of "Catfishing"

[Ben Zimmer]

When I wrote about "catfishing" for the Boston Globe in 2013, I cited a
July 22, 2010 Urban Dictionary entry. As Fred no doubt knows, the term was
introduced in the documentary "Catfish," which came out earlier in 2010.

Here's my Globe column:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/01/27/catfish-how-manti-imaginary-romance-got-its-name/inqu9zV8RQ7j19BRGQkH7H/story.html
Archived non-paywalled version: https://archive.is/O2CtD

And here's the UD entry, which has both noun and verb uses:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=catfish&defid=5112813
catfish (by sbacker July 22, 2010)
A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook
or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue
deceptive online romances.
"Did you hear how Dave got totally catfished last month?! The fox he
thought he was talking to turned out to be a pervy guy from San Diego!
or "I was really falling for that gorgeous gal on Facebook, but she turned
out to be a catfish."


On Sun, Jan 7, 2024 at 8:00 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> "Catfishing" is a slang term for "The practice of creating a fictional
> online persona intending to lure a person into a false relationship."  I
> would welcome any information as to early print occurrences of this term,
> and also early print occurrences of the related term "catfish," both as
> noun and verb.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>

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