catfishing
n.— «The exact day the first North Carolina politician hooked his thumbs in his suspenders and referred to a “catfish amendment” is probably lost to history.…The term refers to a proposed change on a bill that sounds friendly but is actually a sly attempt to kill it. Usually, that’s by adding a provision that would turn off supporters or make the law vastly more expensive.…“There was always some guy getting up talking about a catfish amendment,” he said. “But Cutlar was the one who got the most mileage out of it.” Over time, the joke was forgotten, but the term stuck around, and not just in North Carolina. Lobbyists in Georgia use the word “catfishing” to describe their attempts to load up a bill with killer amendments. One lobbyist is known by the nickname “Catfish” for his ability to do so.» —“‘Catfish amendment’ phrase caught on” by Ryan Teague Beckwith News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) July 5, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
How do you transform ancient Chinese script for use in the modern age? English uses a keyboard with just 26 letters, but the first Chinese typewriter looked like a small table under a huge disk with more than 4,000 characters. A new book chronicles...
What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...