ἐβένινος

Forms

ἐβένῐνος (ebéninos) m (feminine ἐβενίνη, neuter ἐβένῐνον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἔβενος (ébenos, “ebony”) + -ινος (-inos), an adjective of material.^[1][2][3] Beekes derives ἔβενος (ébenos) from hbnj (“ebony”), perhaps ultimately a Nubian word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest records are inscriptions of the 2nd century BC: a chair of ebony in a text from Teos and a small ebony staff in an inventory from Delos.^[4][5] In literature it first appears in Strabo.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In the Roman period it describes ebony timber traded in the Red Sea, in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, and in the magical papyri the ebony wand that the practitioner holds in his left hand.^[5][4][6] Later instances are a rod in the Alexander Romance and in Cosmas Indicopleustes, and a box in a papyrus of the 6th century AD; the spellings ἐβέλινος and ἐβέννινος occur alongside it.^[4]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it both for things made of ebony and, figuratively, for a glossy black colour, as in a romance that speaks of an ebony-black complexion.^[7] Modern Greek has it as a learned word, Modern Greek εβένινος (evéninos), with both senses, as in ebony furniture or ebony-black hair.^[8]

Timeline

• 2nd century BC – An inscription from Teos records an ebony chair, and one from Delos an ebony staff.^[4]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses the word.^[5][4][2]
• 1st–2nd century AD – The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea lists ebony logs among the goods of the Red Sea trade.^[5][4][9]
• 6th century AD – Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of an ebony rod, and a papyrus records an ebony box with the spelling ἐβέλλινος.^[4]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses εβέλινος (evélinos) also for a glossy black complexion.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned word εβένινος (evéninos) means made of ebony, or as black and shiny as ebony.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made of ebony.^[5][4][10]
2. (Byzantine) Glossy black, like ebony.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Muñoz Delgado, Luis (2001), Léxico de magia y religión en los papiros mágicos griegos, Madrid: CSIC
7. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli