Cultural references

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fishing is a widely used as a metaphor though as such it is possibly ambiguous. On the one hand, fishing with a net has nuances of gathering by honest effort. For example, in the New Testament, Jesus is reported to have said to his disciples: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Matthew 4:19.

On the other hand, fishing with bait or lure sometimes has nuances of catching by deception, possibly with an implication of greed on the part of the victim. For example, the expression "fishing expedition" (usually used to describe a line of questioning), describes a case where the questioner implies that he knows more than he actually does in order to trick the target into divulging more information than he wishes to reveal. Other examples of fishing terms that carry a negative connotation are: "fishing for compliments", "to be fooled hook, line and sinker" (to be fooled beyond merely "taking the bait"), and the internet scam of Phishing in which a third party will duplicate a website where you would put sensitive information (such as ebay or a bank site) in order to obtain it.