Word of the Day: April 20, 2009 ~ cobalt

cobalt (koh-bawlt) - noun

Cobalt is "a silver-white metallic element with a faint pinkish tinge, occurring in compounds whose silicates afford important blue coloring substances for ceramics."

First used in the written form around 1675–1685.  From the German word Kobold, meaning "goblin." Cobalt's lustrous sheen often made the miners think that they had discovered a more precious metal. Because of this, and also because the arsenic and sulphur it often contains was harmful to those working over it, this metal was regarded as the demon of the mines and was nicknamed from the German Kobalt, a variant of Kobold, meaning, "a goblin."