sable

English

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Sable

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• sa., s. (in heraldic contexts)

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).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈseɪbəl/, /ˈseɪbɫ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪbəl
• Hyphenation: sa‧ble

Noun

sable (countable and uncountable, plural sables)

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) Any other marten, especially Martes americana (syn. Mustela americana).
3. (countable and uncountable) A pelt of fur of a sable or of one of another species of martens; a coat made from this fur.
   • 1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

     Lovers dallied upon divans spread with sables.

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.
   • 1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. ”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: [Samuel Richardson] for A Millar , and R Dodsley , published 1750, →OCLC, page 295:

     I ſee its Sables wove by Deſtiny.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     […] a delighted shout from the children swung him toward the door again. His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise. ¶ "Phil!  You!  Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes—dear fellow!" recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands.

8. The sablefish.

Derived terms

Related terms

• zibeline

Translations

Adjective

sable (comparative sabler, superlative sablest)

1. Of the black colour sable.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 12”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. , London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     When I behold the violet past prime,
     And sable curls all silver'd o'er with white

   • 1742, [Edward Young], “Night the”, in The Complaint, London: , →OCLC:

     Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, / In rayless majesty, now stretches forth / Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.

   • 2002, Christopher Paolini, chapter 3, in Eragon:

     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.

2. (heraldry): In blazon, of the colour black.
3. Made of sable fur.
4. Dark, somber.
   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/2/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎:

     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.

5. (obsolete, literary) Dark-skinned; black.
   • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 7, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:

     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.

   • 1880 June 19, Henry Kendall, “My Piccaninny”, in The Australian Town and Country Journal, page 28, column 4:

     Ethnologists are in the wrong / About our sable brothers[.]

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 281:

     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."

   • 1905, Banjo Paterson, Old Bush Songs, page 40:

     For twelve long months I had to pace, / Humping my swag with a cadging face, / Sleeping in the bush, like the sable race.

Synonyms

• (dark-skinned): black, dusky, inky, sooty, swarthy

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Colors

References

• Random House Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1987.

Anagrams

• Ables, Basel, Basle, Blase, Bleas, Sabel, ables, albes, baels, bales, beals, blase, blasé, labes, saleb

Asturian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsable/,
• Rhymes: -able
• Hyphenation: sa‧ble

Etymology 1

From French sable and this from Late Latin sablum, from Latin sabulum, alternative form of sabulō. Compare sablera. Compare Italian sabbia, Occitan sabla.

Noun

sable m (plural sables)

1. sand

Etymology 2

From Spanish sable and this from French sabre, from German Säbel, from Hungarian szablya, cognate with Danish sabel, Russian са́бля (sáblja), Polish szabla, Serbo-Croatian сабља.

Alternative forms

• sabre
• sálabre

Noun

sable m (plural sables)

1. saber
2. edge of a scythe

Basque

Alternative forms

• sabre

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s̺able/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -able
• Hyphenation: sa‧ble

Noun

sable inan

1. sabre, saber

Catalan

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencian)

Noun

sable m (plural sables)

1. (heraldry) sable

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sabl/, /sɑbl/

• audio (France)

  (file)

• (Quebec) IPA^(key):

• audio (Quebec)

  (file)

• (Louisiana) IPA^(key):

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old French, from Vulgar Latin sablum, from Latin sabulum, alternative form of sabulō. Compare sablon, which was used more often in Old French. Compare Italian sabbia, Occitan sabla.

Noun

sable m (plural sables)

1. sand

   un grain de sable ― a grain of sand

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Old French martre sable (“sable marten”), an animal. 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). Compare also Persian سمور (samur). Doublet of zibeline.

Noun

sable m (plural sables)

1. (heraldry) the heraldic colour sable; black

Etymology 3

From sabler.

Verb

sable

1. inflection of sabler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “sable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• bêlas, blasé

Galician

Etymology

13th century. From older savel, from *sabŏlos, from Proto-Celtic *samos (“summer”). Cognate with Portuguese sável and Spanish sábalo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsaβle̝̝/

Noun

sable f (plural sables)

1. allis shad (Alosa alosa)

   Synonyms: sabenla, tasca, zamborca

   • 1274, “Documentos antiguos de Galicia”, in M. Sponer, editor, Anuari de l'Oficina Románica de Lingüística i Literatura, Barcelona, 7, page 76:

     Outroſi nos dardes cadá ãno por kalendas mayaſ una duzea de bonoſ [s]auééſ τ outra duzea de lanpreas

     Also, you shall give to us yearly, by the calends of May, a dozen good shads and another dozen lampreys

   • 1319, Ermelindo Portela Silva, editor, La región del obispado de Tuy en los siglos XII a XV. Una sociedad en expansión y en la crisis, Santiago: Tip. El Eco Franciscano, page 393:

     vos que ayades esa renda da dizima dos savees e do pescado que y sayr en vossa vida e despos vosa morte que fique a nos o dito arynno

     you should have this rent of a tenth of the shads and of the fish that is captured there, in your life, and after your death this sand island should return to us

References

• “savees” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “sable” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “sable” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “sábel” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.
• “sabenla” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Old French

Noun

sable oblique singular, m (oblique plural sables, nominative singular sables, nominative plural sable)

1. sable (fur of a sable)

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Adjective

sable m or f (plural sables)

1. (heraldry) sable (of black colour on a coat of arms)

   Synonym: saibro

Noun

sable m (uncountable)

1. (heraldry) sable (the black colour on coats of arms)

   Synonym: saibro

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsable/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -able
• Syllabification: sa‧ble

Etymology 1

From French sable, ultimately from a Balto-Slavic word.

Adjective

sable m or f (masculine and feminine plural sables)

1. (heraldry) sable

Etymology 2

From French sabre, from Hungarian szablya.

Noun

sable m (plural sables)

1. saber, cutlass
2. (fencing) saber

Derived terms

Etymology 3

From Latin sabŭlum. Cognate with French sable.

Noun

sable m (plural sables)

1. (dated) sand

   Synonym: arena

Further reading

• “sable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish sable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsable/,
• Hyphenation: sab‧le

Noun

sable (Baybayin spelling ᜐᜊ᜔ᜎᜒ)

1. saber

Derived terms

• sablehin

See also

• espada
• alpanghe