hobgoblin

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 31, 2025 is: hobgoblin \HAHB-gahb-lin\ noun A hobgoblin is a mischievous goblin that plays tricks in children’s stories. When used figuratively, hobgoblin refers to something that causes fear or worry. // This Halloween we were greeted at our door by werewolves, mummies, and a wide assortment of sweet-toothed hobgoblins. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hobgoblin) Examples: “Vampires and zombies took a big bite out of the horror box office in Sinners and 28 Years Later, and with Del Toro’s Frankenstein hitting theaters next week, it would seem that a return to classic marquee monsters is one of the stories of this summer’s movie season. But there’s one old-school hobgoblin that’s lurking around the edges of this narrative, omnipresent, repeated across a number of notable new titles, but still somehow avoiding the limelight: the witch ...” — Payton McCarty-Simas, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Aug. 2025 Did you know? While a goblin is traditionally regarded in folklore as a grotesque, evil, and malicious creature, a hobgoblin tends to be more of a playful troublemaker. (The character of Puck from Shakespeare’s [A Midsummer Night’s Dream](https://www.britannica.com/topic/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream-play-by-Shakespeare) might be regarded as one.) First appearing in English in the early 1500s, hobgoblin combined goblin (ultimately from the Greek word for “rogue,” kobalos) with hob, a word from Hobbe (a nickname for Robert) that was used both for clownish louts and rustics and in fairy tales for a mischievous sprite or elf. The American writer [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ralph-Waldo-Emerson) famously applied the word’s extended sense in his essay [Self-Reliance](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Self-Reliance): “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”