Trolling in 1540

[EverythingIBM]

http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/net1540.html
I found that absolutely hysterical. Well, apparently people in the 16th century made use of the term "trolling"

  Thou makest a trolling hither and thither
   Sometime thou trollest thou canst not tell whither.

[wellington1869]

did the word mean the same thing tho? I read the first couple of messages there and seemed to me 'strolling' would have worked as well as far as the meaning went.

[Nonmouse]

did the word mean the same thing tho? I read the first couple of messages there and seemed to me 'strolling' would have worked as well as far as the meaning went.

Well, considering the first definition in the OED:

troll, v.
I. 1. intr. To move or walk about or to and fro; to ramble, saunter, stroll, ‘roll’; spec. (slang) of a homosexual: to walk the streets, or ‘cruise’, in search of a sexual encounter; cf. sense 13.

that certainly makes sense...
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[EverythingIBM]

did the word mean the same thing tho? I read the first couple of messages there and seemed to me 'strolling' would have worked as well as far as the meaning went.

I'll check that out later, I have a lot of old english literature that may have references to words like "trolling", I'm sure it was used a fair bit.

[wellington1869]

i'd be curious to know, in terms of the etymology, how this came out of "stroll":



were trolls considered wanderers? I thought they lived under bridges.

[Infinite north]

If you wanna get the boysoul you gotta pay the troll toll.