It's literally in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catfish https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catfish > "2 :

It's literally in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catfish https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catfish > "2 : a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes" Hard to get more "real dictionary" than that. Edit: For that matter, "ghost" is also in the M-W dictionary in the sense of "suddenly cut off all contact with", you just have to scroll down a bit.