sable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sable,^[2] borrowed from Old French sable (“sable fur”), also saible, used in martre sable (“sable marten”) for the animal and its fur,^[3][4][5][2] beside Medieval Latin sabelum, also sabellum.^[3][6][7][2] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1300, both for the fur and for black.^[8] The French word came from Germanic: compare Middle Dutch sabel, Middle Low German sabel and Middle High German zobel,^[4][9][10] and Merriam-Webster traces it through Middle Low German to Old High German zobel.^[11] It is ultimately of Slavic origin:^{[4][9][6][3][7][12][13][14]} compare Russian соболь (sóbolʹ), Polish soból and Czech sobol,^[4][1][6][3] and also Lithuanian sàbalas.^[10][7][3] Klein held that the Slavic word was borrowed from an East Asian language, but Russian etymologists such as Vasmer find none of the proposed sources satisfactory,^[4] and Dictionary.com calls its further origin obscure.^[10] The same Slavic word, through Romance, gave zibeline.^[3][13] The earlier English word for the fur was sabeline, from about 1200.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Black, as one of the colours of heraldry: 1352, in Wynnere and Wastoure.^[3] Barnhart dates the heraldic sense to probably before 1325,^[9] Etymonline to the early 14th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1275–1325.^[10] The animal is recorded from 1423, in the Kingis Quair,^[3] and Barnhart finds it probably before 1422, in Lydgate.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The heraldic black is recorded earlier than the animal.^[3][9] The OED and the Shorter Oxford take the identity as commonly assumed, but note the difficulty that sable fur is brown, not black;^{[3][5][7][15]} Etymonline and Barnhart add that the heraldic term might be a different word of unknown origin.^[4][9] One conjecture is that sable fur was customarily dyed black, perhaps to set it off against the ermine with which it was often worn;^[3][9][13] Etymonline points out that such a custom is not attested,^[4] while Skeat thought simply that black sable was the most prized.^[12] Merriam-Webster treats the heraldic colour, the colour, the animal and the fur as one Middle English word.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary already records the color black, black clothing and mourning garments under the noun;^[2] since Chaucer, about 1374, sable was a poetic word for black, especially black worn in mourning.^[3][4] The OED notes that the spread of the heraldic term into a general poetic word for black is peculiar to English;^[3] Johnson (1755) called it a word used by heralds and poets.^[16] As an adjective it is recorded from the late 14th century;^[4][9] since 1793 it has been used of black people, often in mock titles such as his sable majesty.^[3][4] The fur and the animal kept their own line of senses: a painter's brush of sable hair (1891) and a sable coat (1975).^[3]

Timeline

• 1352 – black, as a heraldic colour.^[3]
• c. 1374 – the colour black; black clothing, especially as a sign of mourning.^[3]
• 1423 – the animal, a small carnivore related to the martens.^[3]
• before 1439 – adjective, black, at first of mourning clothes.^[3][2]
• before 1500 – the skin or fur of the sable.^[3]
• 1603 – sables, mourning garments, in Shakespeare's Hamlet.^[3]
• 1838 – the sable antelope.^[3]
• 1891 – a painter's brush of sable hair.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A marten of the forests of northern Europe and Asia, valued for its dark brown fur.^[17][11][3]
2. The fur of this animal, or a coat made of it.^[17][11][3]
3. An artist's brush made of sable hair.^[3][17]
4. (heraldry) The colour black.^[11][3][17]
5. The colour black, especially in poetry.^[11][3]
6. sables: black clothes worn in mourning.^[11][3]
7. The sable antelope.^[3][17]

Adjective

1. Black or very dark, chiefly in poetry: the sable night.^[11][3][17]
2. (heraldry) Of the colour black.^[11][3]
3. (archaic) Gloomy, dismal.^[11][5]

Related words

• zibeline
• sabeline
• sablefish

Usage notes

The OED also has three unrelated nouns spelled sable: an old word for a sabre (1617–1706), from Dutch or German,^[3][5] and an Indian fish, the hilsa, from Portuguese (1810).^[3] In Westmorland dialect sable was a verb meaning to take frequent sips.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)