kobold

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   An ambivalent, sometimes vindictive, spirit that is capable of materialising as an object…

   An ambivalent, sometimes vindictive, spirit that is capable of materialising as an object or human, often a child; a sprite.

   • 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. 2

   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; […] .
   • On the other hand, the kobolds, brownies, and other household sprites who are not merely benign, but helpful, if well treated; the elf-maids who marry mortals, the swan-maidens, and the like, bear the stamp of Teutonic fancy.
   • 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.
3. 3

   One of a diminutive and usually malevolent race of beings, often with a reptilian or…

   One of a diminutive and usually malevolent race of beings, often with a reptilian or dog-like appearance.

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