kobold

See also: Kobold

English

Alternative forms

• cobold

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kobold. Doublet of cobalt.

Noun

kobold (plural kobolds or (rare) kobolde)

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, published 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, often with a reptilian or dog-like appearance.
   • 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

sometimes vindictive spirit

• Bulgarian: коболд m (kobold)
• Marathi: कोबोल्ड m (kobolḍa)
• Polish: kobold (pl) m
• Portuguese: diabrete (pt) m

mischievous elf; goblin

• Bulgarian: коболд m (kobold)
• Dutch: kobold (nl) m
• Esperanto: koboldo
• Hungarian: kobold (hu), manó (hu)
• Italian: coboldo (it) m
• Marathi: कोबोल्ड m (kobolḍa)
• Polish: kobold (pl) m
• Russian: ко́больд (ru) m (kóbolʹd)

Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkoː.bɔlt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• 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.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

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

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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Related terms

• kabouter
• kobalt

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.bɔld/

Noun

kobold m (plural kobolds)

1. kobold

Further reading

• “kobold”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkobold]
• Hyphenation: ko‧bold
• Rhymes: -old

Noun

kobold (plural koboldok)

1. kobold

Declension

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	kobold	koboldok
accusative	koboldot	koboldokat
dative	koboldnak	koboldoknak
instrumental	kobolddal	koboldokkal
causal-final	koboldért	koboldokért
translative	kobolddá	koboldokká
terminative	koboldig	koboldokig
essive-formal	koboldként	koboldokként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	koboldban	koboldokban
superessive	koboldon	koboldokon
adessive	koboldnál	koboldoknál
illative	koboldba	koboldokba
sublative	koboldra	koboldokra
allative	koboldhoz	koboldokhoz
elative	koboldból	koboldokból
delative	koboldról	koboldokról
ablative	koboldtól	koboldoktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	koboldé	koboldoké
non-attributive possessive - plural	koboldéi	koboldokéi

Possessive forms of kobold
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	koboldom	koboldjaim
2nd person sing.	koboldod	koboldjaid
3rd person sing.	koboldja	koboldjai
1st person plural	koboldunk	koboldjaink
2nd person plural	koboldotok	koboldjaitok
3rd person plural	koboldjuk	koboldjaik

Related terms

• kobalt

 

Further reading

• kobold in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Polish

kobold

Etymology

Borrowed from German Kobold.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔ.bɔlt/
• Rhymes: -ɔbɔlt
• Syllabification: ko‧bold

Noun

kobold m animal

1. (Germanic folklore) kobold (ambivalent, sometimes vindictive, spirit that is capable of materialising as an object or human, often a child)
2. (Germanic folklore) kobold (mischievous elf or goblin, or one connected (and helpful) to a family or household)

Declension

Declension of kobold

	singular	plural
nominative	kobold	koboldy
genitive	kobolda	koboldów
dative	koboldowi	koboldom
accusative	kobolda	koboldy
instrumental	koboldem	koboldami
locative	koboldzie	koboldach
vocative	koboldzie	koboldy

Further reading

• kobold in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• kobold in PWN's encyclopedia

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French kobold.

Noun

kobold m (plural kobolzi)

1. kobold

Declension

Declension of kobold

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) kobold	koboldul	(niște) kobolzi	kobolzii
genitive/dative	(unui) kobold	koboldului	(unor) kobolzi	kobolzilor
vocative	koboldule		kobolzilor

References

• kobold in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN