Catfishing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of fabricating a false identity online for the purpose of romantic or social interactions involves deceiving others about one's true nature
2. This form of online deception entails assuming a fake persona to mislead individuals regarding one's actual identity and motives
3. The practice of pretending to be someone else on the internet with the goal of tricking others into believing in a fabricated persona occurs primarily in social or romantic contexts

Etymology: Catfishing is a verb form of "catfish," and the story behind the noun is the part most people never hear. The 2010 documentary "Catfish" followed a young man named Nev Schulman, who discovered that an online romantic partner was not the person she claimed to be. The film's success gave the practice its modern name, and the word then spread quickly as a way to describe building a fake online persona to deceive someone, often into a relationship. The term "catfish" itself is older than the film, and its precise origins are less certain. Its association with deception and fake identities is what ties the word to the documentary's title, and the verb form simply adds the "-ing" that turns the activity into something a person can do.

Synonyms: deceiving, tricking, scamming