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HOBGOBLIN

Volume 10 · 49 words · 1815 Edition

is a name vulgarly applied to fairies or apparitions. Skinner calls the word robgoblins, and derives it from Robin Goodfellow, Hob being the nick-name of Robin: but Wallis and Junius, with greater probability, derive it from hopgoblin, empuας, because they are supposed to hop without moving both their feet.