troll
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɹɒl/
ipa: /tɹəʊl/
ipa: /tɹɑl/
ipa: /tɹoʊl/
rhymes: -ɒl
rhymes: -əʊl
Forms: form: trolls
Etymology: Partly:
* from Middle English trol (“demon (?); sorcerer (?)”) [and other forms], from Old Norse trǫll (“conjurer, mage; witch”), from Proto-Germanic *truzlą (“supernatural being; demon, fiend; giant; monster”), probably from *trudaną (“to step on; to tread”) + *-ilą (suffix forming agent nouns); and
* borrowed from Norwegian Bokmål troll, Swedish troll, or Danish trold, from Old Norse trǫll (see above).
Doublet of droll and trow.
Cognates
* Danish fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Icelandic tröll
* Middle High German trol, crewtrolle (“spook, wraith; ogre, monster”)
* Norwegian fortrylle (“to bewitch”), trylle (“to conjure”)
* Swedish trolla (“to conjure”)
Senses: examples: text: He followed their advice, and rode through a rye-field, where the Trolls were unable to follow him, but in their exasperation cried after him, "The red cock shall crow over thy dwelling." And behold! his house stood in a blaze.
ref: 1851, Benjamin Thorpe, “Norwegian Traditions. [The Girl at the Sæter.]”, in Northern Mythology, […], volumes II (Scandinavian Popular Traditions and Superstitions), London: Edward Lumley, […], →OCLC, page 7:
text: The Scandinavian fancied himself surrounded by Trolls,—a kind of goblin men, with vast power of work and skilful production,—divine stevedores, carpenters, reapers, smiths, and masons, swift to reward every kindness done them, with gifts of gold and silver.
ref: 1856, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Ability”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, page 81:
text: The bear got so angry that he rushed at the trolls and scratched them all over, while Peter took the other handspike and hammered away at them as if he wanted to beat their brains out. The trolls had to clear out at last, but Peter stayed and enjoyed himself with all the Christmas fare the whole week. After that the trolls were not heard of there for many years.
ref: 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Peter Gynt”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 150:
text: In these manuscripts we are again in an atmosphere of eotens and trolls, there are traces of even older terrors, when the first Teuton settlers in Europe struggled with the aborigines who lived in caves, hints as elusive as the phantom heroes in the Saxon poems, and as unforgettable.
ref: 1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, “The Anglo-Saxon Herbals”, in The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co. […], →OCLC, page 3:
topics: arts
fantasy
folklore
history
human-sciences
literature
media
publishing
sciences
synonyms: trow
glosses: a giant supernatural being, especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.
examples: text: The way Torchie had talked about him, I expected him to be some kind of troll. But he could have passed for one of those actors who makes a couple of movies, gets real popular with the girls for a year or two, and then vanishes from sight. He had that kind of face.
ref: 1999, David Lubar, “Taking the Tour”, in Hidden Talents (A Tor Book), New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 17:
text: In this work, the abject object—a sculpture of a fat, hairy woman—is heartbreakingly comforted by a text that claims the artist's love and desire to protect the 'ugly' troll.
ref: 2009, Judy Chicago, Sarah Quinton, Allyson Mitchell, Jenni Sorkin, When Women Rule the World: Judy Chicago in Thread: […], Toronto, Ont.: Textile Museum of Canada, →ISBN, page 96:
text: She sulked as we returned downstairs, her own more colorful clothes stuffed into her bright green shoulder bag. / "I just wish I didn't have to dress like such a troll." / "Troll? Impossible. I'm wearing beige and do I look like a troll?" / "Since you asked—"
ref: 2010, Linda Francis Lee, chapter 13, in The Devil in the Junior League, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 116:
text: Edwin Baer was an ugly troll of a man. He stood just about five feet, six inches and maybe weighed 140 pounds soaking wet.
ref: 2012 August 29, James Classi, “Round Three”, in Heatseeker, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 26:
text: As the board’s director, Ms. Jankowicz, 33, bore the brunt of the attacks, a subject she knows well. Her most recent book, called “How to Be a Woman Online,” chronicles abuses she and other women face from trolls and other malign actors on the internet.
ref: 2022 May 18, Steven Lee Myers, “A Panel to Combat Disinformation Becomes a Victim of It”, in The New York Times:
synonyms: word: biffer
word: boner-shrinker
word: bonerkiller
word: buttface
word: choad
word: frump
word: minger
word: monkey
word: monkeyface
word: munter
word: pukeface
word: schlub
word: stinka
word: troll
word: trollface
word: uggo
word: ugly duckling
antonyms: word: ugly person
word: unattractive person
glosses: An ugly or unpleasant person.
topics: astronomy
climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
glosses: An optical ejection from the top of the electrically active core region of a thunderstorm that is red in colour and seems to occur after tendrils of vigorous sprites extend downward towards cloudtops.
examples: text: People from the Upper Peninsula—the UP, or the Yoop—some-times call citizens of northern Michigan trolls, because they live “below the bridge.”
ref: 2014 May 24, Jerome Pohlen, Oddball Michigan: A Guide to 450 Really Strange Places, Chicago Review Press, →ISBN:
qualifier: Michigan
glosses: A Michigander who lives on the mainland, i.e. not a resident of the Upper Peninsula, so named due to living south of the Mackinaw Bridge.
Derived terms: hill-troll
troll cat
troll crab
trolless
troll-flower
trollish
trollishly
trollishness
trolllike
troll-like