Derivations of Mineral Names. 135 
ments. An association of “nickel” with the name of any other 
metal expressed the old Germanic idea of a “changeling” (G. Wech- 
seling, from O. H. G. wihseline), derived from the fancied changing 
of children by elves and fairies. Thus, copper-nickel would be the 
name of a mineral resembling copper-ore, yet containing none of 
the latter metal: the meaning would be equivalent to “false 
copper.” 
In this way the names of nickel and kobold became attached to 
certain minerals which resembled rich ores, but yielded neither sil- 
ver nor copper. . To this day the word nickel is applied to persons 
in certain parts of Germany when a giddy, or even vicious (gener- 
ally female), character is to be described. 
An ore known as Kupfernickel in Germany,. coppar-nickel in 
Sweden, yielded a grey, hard metal to the Swedish mineralogist 
Cronstedt, in 1754, which he named nickel. He took the name | 
from the ore. Promptly discerning that the metal he had obtained 
bore no relation to the first part of its name, copper, he selected the 
second. Thus the word which had first been applied by the miners 
was eventually attached to the metal which had caused them so 
much worriment. 
CoBALTITE is immediately derived from N. L. cobaltum, the 
metallic element. Agricola says (1546): “ Est preterea aliud genus 
ferrei quasi interdum coloris, cobaltum nostri vocant.” In O. H. G. 
thë word is Kobolt, sometimes Kobalt; in the sixteenth century, 
Kobeit and cobelt, or cobel; H. G., Kobalt; Sw., kobolt. It is a 
descendant of the Gr. xoßałoç, L. cobalus, whereby a familiar spirit 
was designated. This spirit was not necessarily vicious or ill- 
natured, nor prone to do harm, but he was full of mischief and fond 
of practical jokes. Aristophanes (about 406 B.C.) characterizes a 
xoßałoç as a satyr, a roguish fellow, in the following of Bacchus. 
The Fr. gobelin and Engl. goblin are derived from the same root. 
An amusing explanation of their etymology assigns Fr. gober= 
gobble, as their root and that of kobold, because nurses are apt to 
tell children tales of spirits that will “ gobble” them as a punish- 
ment for disobedience and other childish peccadillos. (Minshew.) 
In Germany the Kobold was rather useful than otherwise, unless 
he was crossed in anything.! Of a particularly industrious servant 
1 Of the ‘‘ Berg-Kobelt”’ (mountain spirit) the following is said: ‘ Es 
lässt sich in allerhand Figur sehen, bissweilen als ein kleines Kind, 
auch wohl als ein alter Bergmann, nur muss ihnen nichts in Weg gele- 
