Phishing
Etymology
A respelling of "fishing," for casting bait and waiting for someone to bite. The "ph" is borrowed from "phreaking," the 1970s subculture of phone-system hacking, and the term surfaced among hackers around 1996. The metaphor is exact: attackers scatter lures widely, knowing only a small fraction need bite to make it worthwhile.
noun · /FISH-ing/
Tricking people into revealing passwords or money by posing as a trustworthy sender.
What it names
The most common way real accounts get breached — not by cracking security, but by fooling the human in front of it.
Example
The phishing email mimicked her bank perfectly, right down to the logo and login page.
Related idea
Phishing is a form of social engineering — it targets the person, not the encryption or firewalls — which is why no amount of technical security fully protects an account whose owner can be fooled.