sable

Etymology

Attested since 1275, from Middle English, from Old French sable and martre sable (“sable marten”), in reference to the animal or its fur; from Medieval Latin sabelum, from Middle Low German sabel (compare Middle Dutch sabel, Middle High German zobel); ultimately from a Balto-Slavic word (compare Russian со́боль (sóbolʹ), Polish soból, Czech sobol). Doublet of sobol. Compare also Middle Persian smwl (*samōr).

noun

1. (countable) A small carnivorous mammal of the Old World that resembles a weasel, Martes zibellina, from cold regions in Eurasia and the North Pacific islands, valued for its dark brown fur (Wikipedia).
2. (countable) The marten, especially Martes americana (syn. Mustela americana).
3. (countable and uncountable) The fur or pelt of the sable or other species of martens; a coat made from this fur.
4. (countable) An artist's brush made from the fur of the sable (Wikipedia).
5. (heraldry) A black colour on a coat of arms (Wikipedia).
   sable (heraldry):
6. (countable and uncountable) A dark brown colour, resembling the fur of some sables.
   sable:
7. (in the plural, sables) Black garments, especially worn in mourning.
8. The sablefish.

adj

1. Of the black colour sable.
   They wound between the wagons to a tent removed from the rest of the traders'. It was crimson at the top and sable at the bottom, with thin triangles of colors stabbing into each other. 2002, Christopher Paolini, chapter 3, in Eragon
2. (heraldry): In blazon, of the colour black.
3. Made of sable fur.
4. Dark, somber.
   She turned and waved a hand to him, she cried a word, but he didn't hear it, it was a lost word. A sable wraith she was in the parkland, fading away into the dolorous crypt of winter. 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/2/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
5. (obsolete, literary) Dark-skinned; black.
   Some of the sable females, who formerly stood aloof, now began to relax and appear less coy; but my heart was still fixed on London, where I hoped to be ere long. 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 7, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I
   Ethnologists are in the wrong / About our sable brothers[.] 19 June 1880, Henry Kendall, “My Piccaninny”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 28, column 4
   Of this one of the drovers writes thus: - "Very soon there will be homesteads and stations dotted all over the Territory within easy distances of one another, driving our sable brethren from their ancient hunting grounds." 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 281
   For twelve long months I had to pace, / Humping my swag with a cadging face, / Sleeping in the bush, like the sable race. 1905, Banjo Paterson, Old Bush Songs, page 40