- 1
A hobgoblin is a small, tricky spirit in old English stories — a kind of , more often a household pest than a monster. People pictured them hiding tools, making messes, or playing jokes at night. The famous one is Robin Goodfellow, also called Puck. The word feels old and story-like; you would not use it of a real person. Though actually, later writers also used hobgoblin for a fear that lives in your head: something you treat as a monster when it is only a worry.
小妖精、惡作劇小鬼
組成hob (an old name for a household elf, from Hob, a nickname of Robin Goodfellow) + goblin (a small, tricky spirit).
同家族的字
- goblinthe second half; a hobgoblin is a kind of goblin, often a smaller household one
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
hobgoblinnoun/hɒbˈɡɒb.lɪn/
- 1
A small, ugly goblin that makes trouble for humans.
- They were, like their northern kindred, divided into two classes: the rural Elves, inhabiting the woods, fields, mountains, and caverns; and the domestic or house-spirits, called Hobgoblins and Robin Goodfellows.
- A M. Berbiguier lately published an elaborate work, in three huge volumes, in which he demonstrated the existence of hobgoblins, described the proper manner of capturing and securing them, and took credit to himself for his zeal for the benefit of mankind, in allowing no day to pass without imprisoning, with his own hands, at least thirty hobgoblins. A writer of biographical notices of contemporary authors, who believed neither in M. Berbiguier's manner of catching hobgoblins nor in the existence of hobgoblins did not scruple to say that M. Berbiguier was mad, and upon this M. Berbiguier brought his action for libel; but unluckily, together with his action, he brought himself into Court, and established in a very few words the truth of the libel.
- 2
A source of dread, fear or apprehension; a bugbear.
- A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
- Under "Fallacies of Danger," then, is listed the subhead of "The Hobgoblin Argument, or, No Innovation, in which the hobgoblin in question is anarchy; which tremendous spectre has for its forerunner the monster innovation." A hot button like this would presumably elicit a visceral response even from Hamilton whose aversion to the hobgoblin of parliamentary reform was apparently his sole unreasoning reflex.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。