46 INTRODUCTION 
gives Fishing—“ to catch, or try to catch fish ’’—wide enough 
for all our purpose and for most of our performances! In 
their definitions of Angling, Angle, etc., the majority of diction- 
aries disagree, but unite in deriving Angle from the Aryan 
root, ANK=to bend, and establishing the fishing term as the 
cousin of the awkward angles of Euclid and of our youth. 
The N.E.D. in its definitions of ‘ Angle’ (sb.), of ‘ Angle’ (vb.), 
of ‘ Angler,’ or of ‘ Angling,’ does not even agree with itself. 
Thus we find : 
(A) “ Angle (sb.), a fish hook: often in later use extended to the 
line, or tackle, to which it is fastened, and the Rod to 
which this is attached. See Book of St. Alban’s (title 
of ed. 2), Treatyse perteynynge to Hawkynge, Huntynge, 
and Fysshynge with an Angle.” 
(B) “‘ Angle (vb.), to use an angle: to fish with a hook and batt.” 
(C) “ Angler, one who fishes with a hook and /ine.”’ 
(D) ‘ Angling, the action or art of fishing with a rod,” ! 
If A, B, C, which all differ, are accurate, D can hardly be so. 
Further from A, B, C, we can deduce no correct definition of D. 
Under D the N.E.D. imports as a necessary component part 
of angling the presence of a rod, but I venture to think on 
insufficient grounds. In the first quotation cited in support, 
“ Fysshynge, callyd Anglynge with a rodde,”’ the word “ rodde,”’ 
if D hold good, must be redundant or unnecessary. ‘“‘ Rodde”’ 
I hold to be an added word of limitation, or description, as in 
“‘ Fysshynge with an Angle.” 
But since the dictionaries do hardly help—to some, indeed, 
they smack of “the heinous crime of word-splitting ’’—and 
since the importance (apart from etymological reasons) of 
possessing an accurate and adequate definition presses, let us 
prostrate ourselves before another oracle, the Law. But here 
too success scarcely crowns our quest. The leading case, 
Barnard v. Roberts and Williams, yields, Delphic-like, little light 
or leading.? 
The facts, briefly stated, were: Roberts and Williams 
1 The ifalics are mine. * 23 Law Times, 439. 
