Fish

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Dr. Goodword
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Fish

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:51 pm

• fish •

Pronunciation: fish • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive (no object nouns)

Meaning: 1. To try to catch fish. 2. To ask questions blindly in hopes that an answer to the questions will provide information that you want. 3. (Usually misspelled phish) To attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by pretending to represent a familiar (financial) institution.

Notes: Today we are focusing on the verb to fish, since it is being used to describe a rampant Internet scam these days. The silly misspelling phish doesn't change the fact that the word itself is our old verb, fish, simply used in a new context. This is to alert you to the scam and tell you how you can (usually) detect it.

In Play: Every day I receive several e-mail messages putatively from E-Bay, PayPal, and various banks. They tell me that they are upgrading their security system and need my username and password, or that they have closed my account until I reset my username and password at their site. The message includes a link to what seems to be the website of the company in question (ebay.com, paypal.com, and others). However, if you run your cursor over the link, you will see in the status bar at the bottom of your e-mail browser a different URL. If the link in an e-mail message is different from the one that appears at the bottom of your browser, don't click it, but send the e-mail message to the trash can (or bin).

Word History: The original Proto-Indo-European root of today's good if ordinary word was pisk- "fish", which turns up pretty much unchanged in Latin piscis "fish", whose plural is pisces. Since [p] regularly became [f] in Germanic languages, fisk in Swedish, Fisch in German, and fish in English come as no surprise. Porpoise, however, might come as a surprise. This word we borrowed from French, where it started out as porc "pig" + pois-, the root of poisson "fish" (originally Latin piscis), which is to say, "pig fish". How unkind could the ancestors of today's French speakers be?!
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Re: Fish

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:10 am

Canadian Pierre Laberge has already written:

"Yes, but it IS supposed to be spelled "ghoti". At least that's what someone said a few years ago. You might know, and could relate, the story...."

I tell the story in passing in the article "How to Pronounce GHOTI and Why".

Actually, Shaw credited the word to an anonymous supporter of spelling reform for the word. Shaw willed a portion of his wealth (probated at £367,233 13 to fund the creation of a new phonemic alphabet for the English language. The results are now called the Shavian Alphabet for which the courts awarded £8600 to its creator, now long since forgotten.
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Re: Fish

Postby call_copse » Mon Oct 20, 2014 7:36 am

I'm not convinced about the misspelling idea, I think the ph prefix is part of a portmanteau of phony and fishing, either that or a derivation based upon the former phreaking, where the portmanteau was perhaps based on phone.

Misspelling or not I don't think the phish version is going away. It is perhaps a helpful differentiation.
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Re: Fish

Postby Perry Lassiter » Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:02 pm

Now common in Louisiana: Geaux Saints! Geaux Tigers! Etc. French spellings are often used here with many terms, and some would slide easily into getting they pole to go ghoting. Or would it be ghotiing?
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Re: Fish

Postby Slava » Mon Oct 20, 2014 9:45 pm

Now common in Louisiana: Geaux Saints! Geaux Tigers! Etc. French spellings are often used here with many terms, and some would slide easily into getting they pole to go ghoting. Or would it be ghotiing?
For whatever it's worth, I'd go for ghotiing, as the -ti is pronounced as one sound. Now, about the Francophone bits, is geaux a valid Frenchness? Or is it just a play on eau(x) and other stuff?
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Re: Fish

Postby Philip Hudson » Tue Oct 21, 2014 11:19 am

I am glad Shaw's Shavian Alphabet is long since forgotten. Spelling reform is a tricky thing and one I scrupulously avoid. "Through" may be spelled that way because it once had a guttural sound at the end, I am not sure about that. I am sure of the meaning of "through". Attempts at spelling it "thru" have not generally succeeded, at least not here in the hinterlands. They may eventually succeed. Thruway already has some currency. "Ghoti" is merely a silly prank.
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Re: Fish

Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:54 pm

Not a play on eaux. It's copying the Cajun French spellings. Since some words in in eaux and pronounced O, then why not? This sort of thing is likely done anywhere another language is common. Philip will be aware of Spanish words dropped here and there in conversation with or without the correct meaning, for example.
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