different between goblin vs kobold

English

Etymology

From Middle English gobelyn, from Old Northern French gobelin (compare Norman goubelin, Walloon gobelin), possibly a blend of Old Dutch *kobeholdo (“goblin”) (compare Dutch kabouter, German Kobold) and Late Latin cobalus (“mountain sprite”), from Ancient Greek ??????? (kóbalos, “rogue, knave; goblin”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /???b.l?n/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /???b.l?n/
• Homophone: GOBLin

Noun

goblin (plural goblins)

1. One of various hostile supernatural creatures, now especially (fantasy literature) a malevolent and grotesque diminutive humanoid, often associated with orcs or trolls.
   • c. 1620, anonymous, “Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song” in Giles Earle his Booke (British Museum, Additional MSS. 24, 665):

     From y? hagg & hungry Goblin,
     y? into raggs would rend yee,
     & y? spirit y? stand’s by y? naked man,
     in y? booke of moones defend yee

   • 1872, George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin, page 50,

     " […] If he had struck a stroke more to the side just here," said the goblin, tapping the very stone, as it seemed to Curdie, against which his head lay, "he would have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and if he follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in. […] "

   • 2006, Charlotte Bishop, Norty: The Chosen Ones, page 187,

     At last the goblins had a chance to rid themselves of one of the troublesome defenders, and two goblin warriors snatched the opportunity.

   • 2010, Thom L. Nichols, War: Return of the Elves, Part 1, page 37,

     The goblin shifted the two younger ones closer to him. It looked like he was hiding behind them, using them as a shield.

     The goblin looked pure evil. His eyes were brown.

   • 2010, D. S. Macleod, The Middle Times: Rise of the Goblin King, page 229,

     I shall send another entourage of goblins back here to Desput with the goblins’ new ally the Pixy! These creatures deserve the same respect as any other goblin.

Synonyms

• hobgoblin; bug, buggard, bugbear, bog, bogey, bogy, bogie, boggard, boggart, baggard, bogle, boggle, bugaboo, bug-a-boo; elf, kobold, sprite, fairy, fay, fey, fae, faerie, puck, hob (sometimes distinguished, especially in fantasy literature)
• See also Thesaurus:goblin

Derived terms

• gobbo
• goblette
• goblin shark
• goblin spider (family Oonopidae)

Translations

Anagrams

• Boglin, Boling, globin, lobing

Polish

Etymology

From English goblin, from Middle English gobelyn, from Old Northern French gobelin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???b.l?in/

Noun

goblin m anim

1. goblin

Declension

Further reading

• goblin in Wielki s?ownik j?zyka polskiego, Instytut J?zyka Polskiego PAN
• goblin in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Serbo-Croatian

Noun

goblin m (Cyrillic spelling ??????)

1. goblin

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• cobold

Etymology

From German Kobold.

Noun

kobold (plural kobolds)

1. (German mythology) An ambivalent, sometimes vindictive, spirit that is capable of materialising as an object or human, often a child; a sprite.
   • 1904, Andrew Lang (collector), author and translator not identified, The Mermaid and the Boy, The Brown Fairy Book, page 176,

     At this point a cock crew, and the youth jumped up hastily saying : 'Of course I shall ride with the king to the war, and if I do not return, take your violin every evening to the seashore and play on it, so that the very sea-kobolds who live at the bottom of the ocean may hear it and come to you.'

   • 2009, Robert Grant Haliburton, The Dwarfs of Mount Atlas: Collected Papers on the Curious Anthropology of Robert Grant Haliburton, page 75,

     Movers, in the first chapter of his Phönizier, says that that group of deities called Dactyls, Cabiri, Corybantes, and Cyclopes, were similar to those old Germanic divinities now known as Kobolds.

2. (German folklore) A mischievous elf or goblin, or one connected (and helpful) to a family or household.
   • a. 1867, George MacDonald, The Shadows, 2000 [1980], The Golden Key and Other Stories, page 96,

     The king had seen all kinds of gnomes, goblins, and kobolds at his coronation; […] .

   • 1977, James Buchanan Given, Society and Homicide in Thirteenth-Century England, 2007, page 138,

     Among the nonhuman creatures that peopled rural Europe in the Middle Ages — the fairies, elves, dwarfs, trolls, and kobolds — there were beneficent female spirits who patronized those households that treated them well.

   • 2011, William Wirt Sikes, Varla Ventura, The Occult Powers of Goats and Other Welsh Tales of Goblins, Fairies, Gnomes, and Elves, unnumbered page,

     In Germany also the kobolds are rather troublesome than otherwise, to the miners, taking pleasure in frustrating their objects, and rendering their toil unfruitful.

3. (fantasy literature) One of a diminutive and usually malevolent race of beings.
   • 2005, Scott Elliot Hicks, The Shattering Light of Stars, page 62,

     There were also various trolls like great smiling badgers, brownies darting about laughing, dwarves with large gray heads, sensuous mermaids, stony kobolds, green gnomes, sirens and many elves, who were busy purifying the sacred hilltop in a mythological cooperation marvelous to the soul's perception.

Synonyms

• (hostile supernatural creature): See goblin

Translations

See also

• cobalt

Dutch

Etymology

18th century. Borrowed from German Kobold. Doublette with kabouter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ko?.b?lt/
• Hyphenation: ko?bold

Noun

kobold m (plural kobolden, diminutive koboldje n, feminine koboldin)

1. kobold
   • 1789, Justus Christiaan Hennings (= Justus Christian Hennings), Onzydige en beproefde gedagten, over de leer aangaande geesten en geesten-zieners, vol. 3, tr. from German, Arend Fokke Simonszoon (publ.), page 324.

     Ik kan my heel wél te binnen brengen, dat deze perzoonen, naderhand, veel geruster en veiliger hebben huisgehouden, toen het eens was beslist, dat Spooken en Kobolden by hen niet wierden aangenomen.

   • 1873, R. R. Rijkens, De reiziger. Aardrijkskundige beschrijvingen en schilderingen. Leesboek voor de hoogste klasse der lagereschool, J. B. Wolters (3rd revised ed.), page 94.

     Het volk in de nabijheid der hooge bergmeren gelooft nog aan allerlei kobolden, elfen, nikkers, water- en berggeesten.

Related terms

• kabouter
• kobalt

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?kobold]
• Hyphenation: ko?bold
• Rhymes: -old

Noun

kobold (plural koboldok)

1. kobold

Declension