Editing Gnome (section)

====Cobalt ore====
Agricola knew of certain noxious unwanted ores the Germans miners called ''kobelt'', though he generally referred to it by the Greek term, {{Transliteration|el|cadmia}}.<ref name="agricola-cobaltum">{{harvp|Agricola|1546}}, {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6tlCB1PdJoC&pg=PA467|2=p. 467}}: "{{lang|la|Hoc genus metallici cobaltum, liceat mihi nunc nostris uti, vocant: Græci cadmiam}}".</ref><ref name="ball2001"/> This ''cadmia''/''kobelt'' appears to have denoted a cobalt-zinc ore, but Agricola ascribes to it corrosive dangers to the miners' feet, and it is noted that [[smaltite]], a cobalt and [[nickel arsenide]] mixture presents corrosive properties.<ref name="ball2001"/> This ore, which defied being smelted by the [[metallurgy]] of that time, may also have been [[cobaltite]], composed of cobalt, arsenic, and sulfur.{{sfnp|Wothers|2019}}

The presence of this nuisance ore ''kobelt'' was blamed on the similar-sounding ''kobel'' mine spirits, as Mathesius noted in his preaching.{{Refn|name="mathesius1562"}} The inferred etymology of ''kobelt'' deriving from ''kobel'', which Mathesius does not quite elocute, was explicitly articulated by [[Johannes Beckmann]] in ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der Erfindungen'' (tr. English as ''The History of Inventions, discoveries and origins'', 1797).<ref name="wothers2019"/>

The ''kobel'' spirit possibly the namesake of the ore is characterized as a "gnome or a goblin" by science writer [[Philip Ball]].<ref name="ball2001"/>{{Refn|The trend of 21st century scholarship seems to be to categorize the ''kobel'', etc. as "gnome". [[Peter Wothers]] titles his section on discussion on cobalt as §Gnomes and Goblins.{{sfnp|Wothers|2019|p=47}} And while Wothers's Fig. 24 ({{=}} the fig. under {{section link||Olaus Magnus}}) labels the creature as "mining demon", ''Britannica Online'' labeled it as "gnome".}} However, 20th century dictionaries had suggested derivation from [[kobold]], for example, Webster's in 1911 which didn't distinguish kobel from kobold and lumped them together,<ref name="Webster1911-cobalt">{{OED|cobalt}}; [[William Torrey Harris|Harris, William Torrey]]; Allen, Frederic Sturges  edd. (1911) ''Webster's New International Dictionary'', s.v."[https://books.google.com/books?id=1n3FLI97mDkC&pg=PA426 cobalt]"</ref> and the OED which conjectured that the ore ''kobolt'' and the spirit ''kobolt/kobold'' was the same word.<ref name="OED-cobalt">{{OED|cobalt}}; [[James Murray (lexicographer)|Murray, James A. H.]] ed. (1908) ''A New Eng. Dict.'' '''II''', s.v."[https://books.google.com/books?id=CUPAIeSbvSIC&pg=PA562 cobalt]"</ref> An alternative etymology deriving ''kobolt'' ore from ''{{linktext|Kübel}}'', a type of bucket mentioned by Agricola, has been suggested by Karl Müller-Fraureuth.<ref name="mueller-fraureuth1906"/>{{Refn|Agricola mentions the bucket repeatedly, in Latin as ''modulus'', glossed as "''kobel''".<ref>{{harvp|Agricola|1546|p=481}}: {{langx|la|Modulus}} {{=}} {{langx|de|Kobel}}</ref> Cf. also Grimm, ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'', Band 5, s.v. "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERSZv4n2zpEC&pg=PA1539 |2=Kobel}}", as well as "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERSZv4n2zpEC&pg=PA1541 |2=Köbel}}" and "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=ERSZv4n2zpEC&pg=PA2489 |2=Kübel}}".}} [[Peter Wothers]] suggests that ''cobalt'' could derive (without connection to Agricola) from ''cobathia'' for noxious smoke.{{sfnp|Wothers|2019|p=47}}