Word of the DayThursday, June 03, 1999
kobold
\KOH-bold\ , noun:1.
æIn German folklore, a haunting spirit, gnome, or goblin.
Quotes:
Witch, kobold, sprite. . . and imp of every kind.
-- A. J. Symington,
This world and the other, too, are always present to his mind, and there in the corner is the little black kobold of a doubt making mouths at him.
-- James Russell Lowell, Among My Books
The Kobolds were a species of gnomes, who haunted the dark and solitary places, and were often seen in the mines.
-- Sir Walter Scott, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
Origin:
Cobalt, the metal, "the goblin of the mines," was named by those who had to work it after the kobold, since it caused them so much trouble, the ore being arsenical.
