Sable

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Pronunciation: /ˈseɪbəl/

Definitions

1. A dark brown or black color, or the valuable fur of a small weasel-like animal prized for luxury garments
2. A shade of very deep black or dark brown ; the soft, dense pelt of a small mammal used to make fine clothing
3. A dark coloration resembling black or rich brown ; the thick, silky fur taken from a small forest-dwelling animal prized for warmth and beauty

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "sable" is that the colour is named after an animal. Medieval traders valued the glossy dark fur of a small forest-dwelling weasel-like creature, and the name of that fur came to describe the colour itself, so black in heraldry and poetry was once a matter of marten pelts. The fur's name travelled a long way before reaching English. It is generally traced to a Slavic word, found in Russian "sobol'", Polish "sobol" and Czech "sobol", which passed into Medieval Latin as "sabelum" and into Middle Low German as "sabel". Old French then used "sable" for the animal and its pelt, and English borrowed it in the 1200s-to-1270s range; the earliest English record is from 1275. Medieval Persian also has a related form, "samōr", a further hint of how widely the animal's valuable fur was traded across the Eurasian world.

Synonyms: black, dark, inky, jet, raven

Antonyms: white, light, fair, pale, bright