fishing
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: noun/1
Fishing is the broadest term, covering any attempt to catch fish for sport or income. Angling is a subset of recreational fishing that uses a rod, reel, and hook — it suggests a quieter, more patient approach, often on rivers or lakes, and is rarely used for commercial contexts. Trawling, by contrast, is exclusively commercial: boats drag large nets through the water to catch quantities of fish like cod or shrimp. As a learner, use 'fishing' for everyday talking about the activity, 'angling' for the sport hobby, and 'trawling' only when discussing industrial methods. For example: 'My uncle goes fishing every Sunday' (natural and general) vs. 'He prefers angling for trout in the stream' (more specific technique) vs. 'The trawling fleet damaged the seabed' (industrial context).
Common collocations
Etymology
Fishing comes from Old English 'fiscian' (the verb meaning 'to catch fish') plus the '-ing' suffix that turns verbs into nouns. The word 'fish' itself traces back to Proto-Indo-European '*pisk-', which became 'fiskaz' in Proto-Germanic and then 'fisc' in Old English. The modern form 'fishing' has been used since at least the 1300s to refer to both the sport and the trade of catching fish.