I’ve recently started reading weblogs, and have seen this term a number of times. Don’t know what it means; can’t tell from context. Did a search in the archives; no obvious threads on it. Can anyone help? Thanks.
– Beruang
Well, it means “fish” in danish. I doubt that answers your question though :).
From Dictionary.com
Does this fit the context you’ve seen it in?
Methinks this is what you want:
http://catallaxyfiles.blogspot.com/2002_09_22_catallaxyfiles_archive.html
Google [fisking definition]
It is what he wants. A more condensed definition - “To deconstruct an article on a point by point basis in a highly critical manner.”. Derived from journalist Robert Fisk, a frequent target of such exercises.
Fisking means to go through a written statement or speech and rebutting or making fun of the points the original author was trying to make. I believe the word comes from an English journalist who some felt made a habit of writing stupid, easy to debunk things.
The Olive Garden Screed is a great example of the fisking art:
http://www.lileks.com/writings/screed/olivegarden.html
Here is a better definition:
http://www.samizdata.net/blog/glossary_archives/001961.html
Not to be continued with “fsck,” which I’ve seen being used more and more these days. It, though, tends to be used in the sense: “Hey, that’s all fsck’d up!”
fsck, BTW, is a *nix program that roughly parallels what ScanDisk does on Windows.
Which is what I was quoting, actually. I didn’t feel like attributing a single sentence definition.
The fisk is what Popeye punches you with.
See also If I Was an Afghan I Too Might Have Attacked Robert Fisk written by, um, Robert Fisk.
I think the point is that this guy is so [insert perjorative term used by hawks against doves] that when a bunch of Afghans beat the crap out of him, he blames himself for being part of the white oppressor oligarchy.
Thus, to fisk is something like to use the [il]logic of an argument to beat the crap out of said argument. Or perhaps just to call to attention the absurdity of an argument because it is Fisk-like.
I came to this thread hoping to learn the meaning behind the name of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime in Marvel comics. Now I’m picturing a huge fat guy “running about” and deconstructing articles. Wierd.
There once was a racer named Fisk…
–
Justin