TACKLE TART

         

tackle,  noun,

·        equipment, apparatus, or gear, esp. for fishing:

tart,  noun,

• promiscuous, of easy virtue,

A mildly derogatory term traditionally used in a self-mocking manner, or for good-natured abuse of friends.

Anglers have always wanted the best toys they could get to practise their sport and this phrase came into the lexicon of angling to jokingly (usually) refer to those who abused that privilege.

From Elfric the Abbot writing in his “Collequy” in the tenth century, via Dame Juliana’s “Treatyse of ffyshynge with an Angle” in 1496