Past tense of 'gaff'; caught a fish with a gaff, or hooked something with a gaff-like tool.
From the noun 'gaff' (a hook-like fishing tool from French). The verb form emerged as fishermen described the action of using the tool.
Gaffed is a fishing term that shows how tools become verbs—when you use a gaff to haul a big fish, you say you 'gaffed' it, turning the tool name into action.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.