Several competing etymologies for "kobold" have been suggested. In 1908, Otto Schrader traced the word to "kuba-walda", meaning "the one who rules the house". According to this theory, the root of the word is "chubisi", the Old High German word for house, building, or hut, and the word akin to the root of the English 'cove'. The suffix "-old" means "to rule". Classicist Ken Dowden has identified the "kofewalt", a spirit with powers over a single room, as the antecedent to the term "kobold" and to the creature itself. He has drawn parallels between the kobold and the Roman "lares" and "penates" and the Anglo-Saxon "cofgodas", "room-gods". Linguist Paul Wexler has proposed yet another etymology, tracing "kobold" to the roots "koben" ("pigsty") and "hold" ("stall spirit").