cobalt meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

cobalt

noun

US /ˈkoʊ.bɔlt/ · /ˈkəʊ.bɒlt/

Etymology From German Kobalt, formerly also Kobald, ‑olt, ‑old, ‑elt, ‑el, apparently the same word as Kobold (“goblin”), from Middle High German, which became also a Harz Mountains silver miners’ term for rock laced with arsenic and sulfur, so called because it degraded the ore and made the miners ill. Doublet of kobold.

Usually A chemical element (symbol Co) with an atomic number of 27: a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal.

Usually Cobalt blue.

And although we’ve certainly seen a variety of blue shades — from periwinkle to cobalt and even Dean Cain’s indigo-washed costume from the 1990’s TV show “Lois & Clark” — Superman’s uniform is still instantly recognizable across generations. In fact, there is only one film — Zack Snyder’s 2013 “Man of Steel” — in which Superman does not wear his iconic red belted trunks.2025 February 21, Leah Dolan, “How the Superman ‘S’ became fashion’s favorite logo”, in CNN:

Derived terms: 67 terms
anticobalt, cobalamin, cobalt-60, cobaltamine, cobaltammine, cobaltarthurite, cobaltate, cobaltaustinite, cobalt-bicarbonate method, cobalt-bloom, cobalt blue, cobalt bomb, cobalt-bronze, cobalt chelatase, cobalt cheletase, cobalt chloride, cobalt crust, cobalt dichloride, cobalt difluoride, cobalt fluoride, cobalt-glance, cobalt green, cobalti-, cobaltian, cobaltic, cobaltiferous, cobalt(II) sulfate, cobaltite, cobaltkieserite, cobaltkoritnigite, cobaltlike, cobaltlotharmeyerite, cobalto-, cobaltoan, cobaltocene, cobaltocheletase, cobaltomenite, cobaltous, cobalt oxide, cobalt-pyrites, cobalt red, cobalt-sixty, cobalt-speiss, cobalt therapy, cobalttsumcorite, cobalt ultramarine, cobalt violet, cobalt-vitriol, cobalt yellow, cobamide, cobinamide, dicobalt, earthy cobalt, gray cobalt, grey cobalt, luteocobalt, noncobalt, organocobalt, praseocobalt, purpureocobalt, radiocobalt, red cobalt, samarium-cobalt magnet, silver-white cobalt, telecobalt, tin-white cobalt, tricobalt
Related terms: asbolan, asbolite, erythrite, glaucodot, skutterudite, smaltine