Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
👺 A goblin 🪨 A mineral ore
kobold

kobold

9.9
A kind of ore once mistaken for silver and giving off poisonous fumes when smelted
  • noun
  • /ˈkoʊboʊld/
  • Archaic
translation icon : kobold
  • The poisonous fumes released by smelting kobold made mining dangerous in the past.

Examples

  • The kobold ore was infamous among the silver miners.

  • Early miners often mistook kobold for valuable silver ore, only to be disappointed.

  • A sample of kobold was displayed in the museum's mineral collection.

  • Did you know that a kobold can spoil silver?

  • In the past, miners feared that the presence of kobold would indicate arsenic in the ore, making the silver extraction dangerous.

  • The toxic fumes released from the kobold significantly hindered the miners' work, as they believed it spoiled their silver.

  • Historically, miners would refer to any cobalt-rich ore with poisonous gases as kobold due to its infamous reputation.

Surface Forms

kobold singular
kobolds plural

Etymology

Kobold was also the name miners used for a cobalt-bearing ore that looked like silver but ruined the metal and gave off poisonous fumes, because miners blamed the hidden 'kobolds' for their trouble. That is why the metal name cobalt comes from kobold, and the word can mean the bad ore once feared by miners.