1894 Brewer’s / F / Fairy of the Mine
A malevolent being supposed to live in mines, busying itself with cutting ore, turning the windlass, etc., and yet effecting nothing. (See Gnome.)
“No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,
Hath hurtful power oʹer true virginity.”
Milton: Comus, 447–8.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.