Quote:A long time ago in England, it was believed that goblins sometimes secretly exchanged their babies for human babies. This was used as an explanation when parents found themselves with a particularly ugly or deformed child: these parents wanted to believe that their real baby had been stolen by goblins, and the other left in its place. The label for such a child was auf, or alfe (meaning "goblin's child"), terms that were later altered to form our present-day oaf. Although the linguistic history is not entirely clear, auf and alfe are likely from the Middle English alven and elven, meaning "elf" or "fairy." Today the word oaf is no longer associated with unattractive babies and is instead applied to anyone who appears especially unintelligent or graceless.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day (February 27, 2016)
Did the modern scientific method have its origins in medieval England? Probably not, of course, but it seems that the idea of goblins arose because individuals had problems explaining birth defects and/or other abnormalities in young children.
