Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
rickroll en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈɹɪkˌɹoʊl/ (General-American)
- /ˈɹɪkɹəʊl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-s
Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs
Proto-Celtic *rīxsbor.
Proto-Germanic *rīks
Proto-West Germanic *rīk
Proto-Indo-European *kret-der.?
Proto-Germanic *harduz
Proto-Indo-European *-yos
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Proto-Germanic *-jaz
Proto-West Germanic *-ī
Proto-West Germanic *hardu
Proto-West Germanic *Rīkuhardu
Old High German Rihhart
Middle High German Rihardbor.
Medieval Latin Richardusder.
Old French Richardbor.
Middle English Rycharde
English Richardder.
English Rick (Astley)
Proto-Germanic *dūkaną
Proto-West Germanic *dūkan
Old English dū̆ce
Middle English doke
English duck
English roll
English duckroll
blend
English rickroll
The verb is a blend of Rick + duckroll, combining the name of the British pop singer and songwriter Rick Astley (born 1966) with a reference to the duckroll prank on the website 4chan, in which users tricked into clicking on a hyperlink were led to an image of a duck on wheels. The word was coined by the American YouTuber Shawn Cotter (born 1987) who, under the handle “cotter548”, uploaded the music video of Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) to the online video-sharing service YouTube and then posted messages on 4chan on May 15, 2007 ostensibly with links to a trailer for the forthcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV. People who clicked on the links instead saw the Astley video with the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” scrolling across the screen. The noun is derived from the verb.
Meanings
-
(Internet, transitive) An act of or attempt at rickrolling.
Chances are that at some point in 2008, you or someone you know experienced a "Rick Roll"—a bait-and-switch prank that dupes you into watching the video for Rick Astley's 1980s hit "Never Gonna Give You Up." […] But perhaps the ultimate Rick Roll occurred on April Fool's Day in 2008, when YouTube rigged up every feature video on the home page to play Astley's infamous clip.
2009, Greg Jarboe, “Month 3: Create Viral Video Content”, in YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day, Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 161:You have to check out this link. Not a rickroll.
Now, I know that the the^([sic]) problem with what I'm saying is that it sounds like a recipe for being really boring and humdrum. Links, links, links. I'm not really; the rickroll has a value, to spike peoples' inflated expectations, or remind them—wittily—of their weaknesses: […]
2008 December 5, Charles Arthur, “Why rickrolling is bad for you”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Oct 2022:This seems much more likely to be the work of a talented but inexperienced individual. […] The rick-roll in the code seems juvenile and unprofessional.
2020, William O’Sullivan, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Nhien-An Le-Khac, “Defending IoT [Internet of Things] Devices from Malware”, in Nhien-An Le-Khac, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, editors, Cyber and Digital Forensic Investigation: A Law Enforcement Practitioner’s Perspective (Studies in Big Data; 74), Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 10:In the Internet world and in multiplayer videogames in particular, to play a hoax on someone is also called trolling. […] One well-known tactic is the ‘rick roll’ meme, wherein someone is led to believe that a certain action, for example, clicking a particular hyperlink, will be relevant to his aims but instead the victim is unintentionally directed to a music video for the 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.
2017, Anton Nijholt, “Mischief Humor in Smart and Playable Cities”, in Anton Nijholt, editor, Playable Cities: The City as a Digital Playground (Gaming Media and Social Effects), Singapore: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, →ISSN, part III (Design for Playful Public Spaces), page 242:CNN anchor Jake Tapper called Donald Trump's decision to trot out an array of military medal winners before addressing his long-held questions about President Barack Obama's birth a "political Rick-roll." […] "While these American heroes are, you know, people that we should all show reverence and respect, they are much greater men than Rick Astley, it’s hard to imagine this as anything other than a political Rick-roll," Tapper said.
2016 September 16, Louis Nelson, “Jake Tapper Calls Trump Event a ‘Political Rick-roll’”, in Politico, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2022:
Forms
Translations (2)
pl rickroll (act of or attempt at rickrolling) · fi rickrollaus (act of or attempt at rickrolling)
wikipedia: 4chan · wikipedia: Never Gonna Give You Up · wikipedia: Rick Astley · wikipedia: Grand Theft Auto IV · wikipedia: YouTube
rickroll en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈɹɪkˌɹoʊl/ (General-American)
- /ˈɹɪkɹəʊl/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-s
Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs
Proto-Celtic *rīxsbor.
Proto-Germanic *rīks
Proto-West Germanic *rīk
Proto-Indo-European *kret-der.?
Proto-Germanic *harduz
Proto-Indo-European *-yos
Proto-Indo-European *-yós
Proto-Germanic *-jaz
Proto-West Germanic *-ī
Proto-West Germanic *hardu
Proto-West Germanic *Rīkuhardu
Old High German Rihhart
Middle High German Rihardbor.
Medieval Latin Richardusder.
Old French Richardbor.
Middle English Rycharde
English Richardder.
English Rick (Astley)
Proto-Germanic *dūkaną
Proto-West Germanic *dūkan
Old English dū̆ce
Middle English doke
English duck
English roll
English duckroll
blend
English rickroll
The verb is a blend of Rick + duckroll, combining the name of the British pop singer and songwriter Rick Astley (born 1966) with a reference to the duckroll prank on the website 4chan, in which users tricked into clicking on a hyperlink were led to an image of a duck on wheels. The word was coined by the American YouTuber Shawn Cotter (born 1987) who, under the handle “cotter548”, uploaded the music video of Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up” (1987) to the online video-sharing service YouTube and then posted messages on 4chan on May 15, 2007 ostensibly with links to a trailer for the forthcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV. People who clicked on the links instead saw the Astley video with the caption “You just got Rickroll’d” scrolling across the screen. The noun is derived from the verb.
Meanings
-
(transitive) To mislead (someone) into following a seemingly innocuous hyperlink, or sometimes a QR code, that leads to a YouTube video of Rick Astley's song "Never Gonna Give You Up".
I try not to get rickrolled by sketchy YouTube links, but sometimes you let your guard down.
Once you start rickrolling people, and more importantly get a reputation for it, you're heading towards being the Zimbabwean dollar in the link economy: it doesn't matter how many you offer, people just aren't going to buy them.
2008 December 5, Charles Arthur, “Why rickrolling is bad for you”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Oct 2022:Despite its name, there is one thing the Vote Leave campaign should not have left for so long: registering a domain name. The delay by the anti-EU organisation meant that up to 100,000 people who tried to access voteleave.com, co.uk or .net were rickrolled – redirected to a YouTube clip of Rick Astley's 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up. So far, so internet.
2016 April 20, Homa Khaleeli, “How Vote Leave got rickrolled”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Nov 2022:
-
(broadly, transitive) To surprise or trick (someone) into hearing this song.
He turned on the radio. An oldies station from Phoenix was in the middle of playing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. / “Oh my God!” Harlowe screamed and laughed. “Did Phoenix just ‘Rick Roll’ us?”
2020, Lowen Wuulph, “Roadtrip [12-28 & 29-2006]”, in The Dirac Effect, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Dorrance Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 200:The DJ rickrolled the whole audience by suddenly playing Rick Astley’s hit song.
With a single tap on its screen, the device can take over any one of the millions of televisions connected to a Google Chromecast digital media player that happens to be within Wi-Fi range and force it to play Astley's canonical “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video—or any other equally annoying or embarrassing YouTube clip of the prankster’s choosing. […] But [Dan] Petro nonetheless imagines a rickmote-wielding hacker moving slowly through around a dense residential area and wirelessly rickrolling one hapless Chromecast owner after another.
2014 July 16, Andy Greenberg, “Rickroll Innocent Televisions With This Google Chromecast Hack”, in Wired, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2022:Two men on the sidelines surprised the crowd by blasting the British singer Rick Astley’s 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up” through the gym, while one, dressed as a look-alike in Mr. Astley’s signature trench coat, lip-synched and mugged to the music: a popular prank known as rickrolling.
[2008 March 24, Evelyn Nussenbaum, “The ’80s Video That Pops Up, Online and Off”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2023:
-
(broadly, transitive) To cause (someone) to unexpectedly engage with this song through an indirect method, such as through steganography, sheet music, or by inserting the lyrics into an unrelated context.
Sairam Gudiseva’s boast on Twitter that he had ‘Rick Rolled my physics teacher …’', posting an accompanying photograph of his essay with the verse from the 1987 hit ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ written with the first word on every line.
2014 January 17, Tom Gardner, “Rickrolled: Student pranks his physics teacher by inserting lyrics to Rick Astley’s ‘Never Going to Give You Up’ into paper on quantum mechanics”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2022:She inserted the lyrics of “Never Gonna Give You Up” into her speech so casually that most listeners didn’t even realize they’d been rickrolled.
For their latest hack, students decided to RickRoll the Dome in the nerdiest way possible—by wrapping the first eight notes of the now infamous pop song around it's exterior.
2009 September 14, Brett Israel, “Never Gonna Give You Up: MIT Gets RickRolled”, in Discover: Science for the Curious, Waukesha, Wis.: Kalmbach Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2022:Specifically, one passage from [Melania] Trump's inspiring address bears a striking resemblance to Astley's song, which had led to accusations that the Trump campaign may be "Rick-rolling" the electorate.
2016 July 19, Randall Roberts, “Melania Trump’s RNC speech provokes claims of plagiarism and, maybe worse, Rickrolling”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Nov 2022:
Forms
Deriveds
rickrolling · rickroller · rickrollee
Translations (1)
fi rickrollata (to mislead (someone) into opening a hyperlink leading to a YouTube video of Rick Astley’s song “Never Gonna Give You Up”)
wikipedia: 4chan · wikipedia: Never Gonna Give You Up · wikipedia: Rick Astley · wikipedia: Grand Theft Auto IV · wikipedia: YouTube