# sable
## English
### Alternative forms

* sa., s. (in heraldic contexts)

### Etymology

Attested 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); ultimately from a Slavic word (compare Russian со́боль (sóbolʹ), Polish soból, Czech sobol). Compare also Middle Persian smwl (*samōr).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈseɪbəl/, /ˈseɪbɫ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪbəl
* Hyphenation: sa‧ble

### Noun

sable (countable and uncountable, plural sables)
* (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).
* (countable) Any other marten, especially Martes americana (syn. Mustela americana).
* (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.
* (countable) An artist's brush made from the fur of the sable (Wikipedia).
* (heraldry) A black colour on a coat of arms (Wikipedia).
    sable (heraldry):
* (countable and uncountable) A dark brown colour, resembling the fur of some sables.
    sable:
* (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[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] 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.
* The sablefish.

#### Derived terms

* American sable (Martes americana)
* red sable (Martes zibellina etc.)
* Russian sable (Martes zibellina)
* sable antelope (Hippotragus niger)
* sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria)
* sable iron
* sable mouse
* Siberian sable (Martes zibellina)

#### Related terms

* zibeline

#### Translations
### Adjective

sable (comparative sabler, superlative sablest)
* Sable-coloured, black.
** 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.
* (heraldry): In blazon, of the colour black.
* Made of sable fur.
* 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.
* (archaic, 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: /ˈsable/ [ˈsa.β̞le]
* 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 (uncountable)
* 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)
* saber
* edge of a scythe

## Basque
### Alternative forms

* sabre

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /s̺able/ [s̺a.β̞le]
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -able
* Hyphenation: sa‧ble

### Noun

sable inan
* sabre, saber

## Catalan
### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈsab.blə]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈsa.ble]

### Noun

sable m (plural sables)
* (heraldry) sable

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /sabl/ ~ /sɑbl/
* Audio (France):(file)
* (Quebec) IPA: [sɑɔ̯bl]
* Audio (Quebec):(file)
* (Louisiana) IPA: [sab]

### 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)
* sand
    un grain de sable ― a grain of sand

##### Derived terms

* bac à sable
* banc de sable
* chat des sables
* château de sable
* grain de sable
* jeu bac à sable
* marchand de sable
* sablage
* sable mouvant
* sabler
* sableur
* sableuse
* sableux
* sablier
* sablière
* sablon
* tempête de sable

### 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)
* (heraldry) the heraldic colour sable; black

### Etymology 3

From sabler.

#### Verb

sable
* inflection of sabler:
** first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
** second-person singular imperative

### Further reading

* “sable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 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: /ˈsaβle̝̝/

### Noun

sable f (plural sables)
* 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 lanpreasAlso, 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 arynnoyou 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

* Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “savees”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “sable”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “sable”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
* Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “sábel”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN
* Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “sabenla”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN
* ↑ Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1983–1991) “sábalo”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos

## Old French
### Noun

sable oblique singular, m (oblique plural sables, nominative singular sables, nominative plural sable)
* sable (fur of a sable)

## Portuguese
### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈsa.bli/
* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈsa.bli/
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /ˈsa.ble/
* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈsa.blɨ/ [ˈsa.βlɨ]

### Adjective

sable m or f (plural sables)
* (heraldry) sable (of black colour on a coat of arms)
    Synonym: saibro

### Noun

sable m (uncountable)
* (heraldry) sable (the black colour on coats of arms)
    Synonym: saibro

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈsable/ [ˈsa.β̞le]
* 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)
* (heraldry) sable

### Etymology 2

From French sabre, from Hungarian szablya.

#### Noun

sable m (plural sables)
* saber, cutlass
* (fencing) saber

##### Derived terms

* diente de sable
* ruido de sables
* sablazo
* sable de luz
* sierra de sable
* tragasables

### Etymology 3

From Latin sabŭlum. Cognate with French sable.

#### Noun

sable m (plural sables)
* (dated) sand
    Synonym: arena

### Further reading

* “sable”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

## Tagalog
### Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish sable, from French sabre, from German Säbel, ultimately from Hungarian szablya.

### Pronunciation

* (Standard Tagalog) IPA: /ˈsable/ [ˈsaː.blɛ]
* Rhymes: -able
* Syllabification: sa‧ble

### Noun

sable (Baybayin spelling ᜐᜊ᜔ᜎᜒ)
* saber

#### Derived terms

* sablehin

#### See also

* alpanghe
* espada

### Further reading

* “sable”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2024
* “sable”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018

### Anagrams

* balse