cobalt
pronunciation
How to pronounce cobalt in British English:
UK [ˈkəʊbɔ:lt]
How to pronounce cobalt in American English:
US [ˈkoʊbɔlt]
-
- Noun:
- a hard ferromagnetic silver-white bivalent or trivalent metallic element; a trace element in plant and animal nutrition
Word Origin
- cobalt
- cobalt: [17] German kobold means ‘goblin’: and in former times it was believed by German silver miners that impurities in the ore they were extracting, which lessened the value of the silver and even made them ill, were put there by these mischievous creatures. In fact these impurities were a silver-white metallic element, which was named kobalt after a Middle High German variant of kobold (the miners’ sickness was probably caused by the arsenic with which it occurred).
- cobalt (n.)
- 1680s, from German kobold "household goblin," Harz Mountains silver miners' term for rock laced with arsenic and sulfur (so called because it degraded the ore and made the miners ill), from Middle High German kobe "hut, shed" + *holt "goblin," from hold "gracious, friendly," a euphemistic word for a troublesome being. The metallic element was extracted from this rock. It was known to Paracelsus, but discovery is usually credited to the Swede George Brandt (1733), who gave it the name. Extended to a blue color 1835 (a mineral containing it had been used as a blue coloring for glass since 16c.). Compare nickel.
Example
- 1. Take the chevrolet cobalt and the mercury grand marquis .
- 2. The catalysts use carbon , iron and cobalt .
- 3. The cobalt market 's collapse offers one indication .
- 4. The system consists of cobalt metal , phosphate and an electrode that are placed in water .
- 5. Super alloys cobalt , titanium and chrome are used in such specialised engineering manufacturing as jet engines .