Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday November 15, 2005
kobold \KOH-bold\ , noun:
æIn German folklore, a haunting spirit, gnome, or goblin.
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
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.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for kobold
