sable
A small carnivorous mammal of the Old World that resembles a weasel, Martes zibellina,…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.
Translations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 2
Meaning
8 senses(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.
Zobel
со́больsóbolʹ
(countable)An artist's brush made from the fur of the sable, the kolinsky sable-hair brush.
an artist's brush made of sable hairs
(uncountable)A black colour on a coat of arms.
Schwarz
More meanings 5
(countable, uncountable)A dark brown colour, resembling the fur of some sables.
the expensive dark brown fur of the marten
(countable)Any other marten, especially Martes americana (syn. Mustela americana).
(countable, uncountable)A pelt of fur of a sable or of one of another species of martens; a coat made from this fur.
(countable, in the plural, uncountable)Black garments, especially worn in mourning.
(countable, uncountable)The sablefish.
Origin
Attested since 1275, from Middle English sable, from Old French sable and martre sable (“sAttested since 1275, from Middle English sable, 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, whence German Zobel); ultimately from a Slavic word (compare Russian со́боль (sóbolʹ), Polish soból, Czech sobol). Compare also Middle Persian smwl (*samōr).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: sablesSynonyms
8 synonyms- an artist's brush made of sable hairs:sable brushsable's hair pencil
- a very dark black:coal blackebonyjet blackpitch blacksoot black
- marten of northern Asian forests having luxuriant dark brown fur:Martes zibellina
Word family
8 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.