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The metallic element "cobalt" ultimately draws its name from folklore. In Middle High German, "kobolt" denoted a usually helpful household elf that engaged in nasty pranks only when it was offended. Later, early Modern German Kobold came to refer to a variety of less helpful goblins inhabiting fields and mountains. The variant "Kobolt" in the 16th century was applied by German miners to ores containing the metal cobalt, which they considered to be worthless; they believed that mountain goblins had spoiled adjacent silver ores, or had stolen the silver within the ore. The metal itself in relatively pure form was not produced and described until the 17th century, when "cobalt," with its first letter influenced by New Latin cobaltum, became part of the international language of science.
Examples of cobalt in a Sentence
Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 14 May 2025
The battery, which has been under development for a decade, uses more of the cheaper elements like manganese and far less cobalt and nickel than current lithium-ion cells.
—Danielle Chemtob, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025
Deposits of copper, lead, zinc, silver, nickel, cobalt and manganese are also significant.
—Brendan Cole, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 May 2025
Those minerals are the kind needed to fuel the global green energy transition—copper, zinc and cobalt.
—Christian Elliott, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Apr. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Cobalt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cobalt. Accessed 24 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
from German Kobalt "cobalt," an altered form of Kobold, literally, "goblin"; so called because its appearance in silver ore was thought to have been the work of goblins who left it in place of silver which they stole
Medical Definition
cobalt
noun
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