goblin
pronunciation
How to pronounce goblin in British English:
UK [ˈgɒblɪn]
How to pronounce goblin in American English:
US [ˈgɑblɪn]
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- Noun:
- (folklore) a small grotesque supernatural creature that makes trouble for human beings
Word Origin
- goblin
- goblin: [14] Goblin probably came via Anglo- Norman from medieval Latin gobelīnus, which was reported by the 12th-century English chronicler Ordericus Vitalis as haunting the area around Évreux in northwestern France. It is thought that this could have been based on German kobold ‘goblin’, source of English cobalt.=> cobalt
- goblin (n.)
- early 14c., "a devil, incubus, mischievous and ugly fairy," from Norman French gobelin (12c., as Medieval Latin Gobelinus, the name of a spirit haunting the region of Evreux, in chronicle of Ordericus Vitalis), of uncertain origin; said to be unrelated to German kobold (see cobalt), or from Medieval Latin cabalus, from Greek kobalos "impudent rogue, knave," kobaloi "wicked spirits invoked by rogues," of unknown origin. Another suggestion is that it is a diminutive of the proper name Gobel. Though French gobelin was not recorded until almost 250 years after appearance of the English term, it is mentioned in the Medieval Latin text of the 1100's, and few people who believed in folk magic used Medieval Latin. [Barnhart] Thou schalt not drede of an arowe fliynge in the dai, of a gobelyn goynge in derknessis [Psalm 91:5 in the later Wycliffe Bible, late 14c.]
Example
- 1. And they looked at her as if she had seen her own goblin in the elevator .
- 2. If every goblin could go to court to seek compensation , the thrill would be gone .
- 3. It is fun to play a goblin whose hut is at risk of being burned down arbitrarily by a barbarian horde .
- 4. Soon marla began to feel as if she 'd never really had a sister , but had been visited by some strange goblin or ghost .
- 5. Many of these avoided previous detection because they were too small , including goblin spiders , sea slugs and barnacles , the statement said .