Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An often mischievous household elf in German folklore.
  • noun A gnome that haunts underground places in German folklore.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Germany, an elemental spirit, or nature-spirit of the earth, corresponding to this element as undines, sylphs, and salamanders respectively correspond to water, air, and fire; a gnome or goblin.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of domestic spirit in German mythology, corresponding to the Scottish brownie and the English Robin Goodfellow.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mischievous elf, or an evil spirit; a goblin.
  • noun fantasy One of a diminutive and usually evil race of beings.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German, from Middle High German kobolt : perhaps Middle High German kobe, pigpen; akin to English cove + Middle High German hold, attached, well-inclined (as a household spirit to a house or farm).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Kobold.

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Examples

  • Cobalt-based colours and pigments have been used since ancient times for jewellery and paints, and miners have long used the name kobold ore for some minerals.

    NDTV News - Top Stories 2010

  • Apparently some creature called a kobold escaped from wherever my grandfather trapped it, and it has teamed up with Milo.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

  • Apparently some creature called a kobold escaped from wherever my grandfather trapped it, and it has teamed up with Milo.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

  • FWIW, the problem I reported last week about van. pydeb is actually a toolchain issue, reproducible only with svn-buildpackage, I've forwarded all debugging info to kobold which is working on it ...

    Planet Debian Stefano Zacchiroli 2009

  • “Actually, yes,” the kobold stated matter-of-factly.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

  • “The kobold,” Darcy whispered with a quaking voice.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

  • The kobold gasped and pointed to the third mirror.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

  • The kobold rushed toward Milo and pushed him into the shard.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

  • The kobold was sitting on a small three-legged stool at the bottom of the platform, with an open book in his lap.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

  • Encase it in salt with a capture spell, and the kobold will be trapped again.

    Master of Mirrors Amanda Marrone 2011

Comments

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  • Related to cobalt.

    November 23, 2007

  • 1 : a gnome that in German folklore inhabits underground places

    2 : an often mischievous domestic spirit of German folklore

    January 25, 2008

  • From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport

    January 19, 2010