ebon, n. and a.
(ˈɛbən)
Forms: (4 ebenus), 5–7 eban(e, heban, 6–7 eben(e, heben(e, ebone, (9 arch. heben), 6– ebon. Some of the forms in -e may belong to ebony.
[ad. L. hebenus, ebenus, ad. Gr. ἔβενος, perh. of oriental origin: the Heb. hobnīm (Ezek. xxvii. 15) is supposed to be the same word. In med.L. (h)ebanus, whence some of the Eng. forms; cf. It., Sp., Pg. ebano.]
A. n.
1. A hard black wood, the product of a tree belonging to the family Ebenaceæ, mentioned in very early times as an article of import from the East; = ebony. Now only poet.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lii. (1495) 633 Ebenus is a tree growynge in Ethiopia wyth blacke coloure.] c 1440 Promp. Parv. 135 Eban, tre, ebanus. 1558 Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 96 a, It is very good..also to make tables and coffers of..Hebene. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, De l' Hebene, a wood called Heben. 1627 May Lucan x. 139 Pillars there Not covered with ægyptian Eben were. 1697 Dryden Virgil (1806) I. 207 India black ebon and white iv'ry bears. 1846 Lytton Lucretia (1853) 301 Dark as ebon, spreads the one wing. |
† 2. The tree itself,
Diospyros Ebenus, a native of Ceylon, Madagascar, and Mauritius.
Obs.| 1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 284 Wodde of Heben. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 148 Great woods of Ebene..alwaies greene. 1623 Cockeram 111, Ebone, a blacke tree, bearing not leafes nor fruit, being burnt, it yeelds a sweet smell. |
B. attrib. and adj. (chiefly
poet. or
rhet.)
1. simple
attrib.| a 1599 Spenser Ruines of Time Wks. (1678) 139 A curious Coffer made of Heben wood. 1613 Purchas Pilgr. I. vii. xi. 595 They found excellent Eben Trees. 1813 Scott Trierm. iii. xiii, A weighty curtal-axe..the tough shaft of heben wood. |
2. attrib. or quasi-adj. Consisting or made of ebony; often
fig. for ‘black, dark’.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 948 Deaths ebon dart. 1633 P. Fletcher Pisc. Ecl. vii. xvii, Her eye-brow black, like to an ebon bow. 1737 West Let. in Gray's Poems (1775) 20 Fate, whose ebon sceptre rules The Stygian deserts. 1742 Young Nt. Th. i. 18 Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne. 1772 Sir W. Jones Arcadia Poems (1777) 102 With ebon knots, and studs of silver, wrought. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam i. xxx, But when in ebon Mirror, Nightmare fell. 1863 Longfellow Wayside Inn, 2nd Day, Interl. iii. 19 From out its ebon case his violin the minstrel drew. |
3. adj. Of the colour of ebony; black, dark, sombre.
| 1607 Heywood Fair M. of Exchange i. Wks. 1874 II. 16 As blind as Ebon night. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 5 There under ebon shades..In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. a 1703 Pomfret Poet. Wks. (1833) 116 Night..spreads her ebon curtains round. 1802 Coleridge Sibyl. Leaves II. 196 Deep in the air and dark, substantial, black, An ebon mass. 1843 Prescott Mexico iii. vi. (1864) 168 The image of the mystic deity..with ebon features. |
¶ 4. Erroneously used for ‘ivory’.
| 1593 G. Fletcher Licia Sonn. xxix. (1872) 109 Her Ebon thighes. Ibid. xxxix. (1872) 109 Those Ebon hands. |
C. Comb. a. similative, as
ebon-black,
ebon-coloured;
b. instrumental and parasynthetic, as
ebon-faced,
ebon-masted,
ebon-sceptred,
ebon-tipped, etc.
| 1592 Greene Poems 85 How bright-eyed his Phillis was..When fro th' arches *ebon-black flew looks as a lightning. |
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 246 The *ebon coloured Inke. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 621/1 Melanosis may be found in the form of brown or ebon-coloured fluid. |
| 1601 Death Earl Huntington ii. i. in Hazl. Dodsley VIII. 256 Pitch-colour'd, *ebon-fac'd, blacker than black. |
| 1845 Hirst Poems 66 Royal vessels..*ebon masted. |
| 1745 T. Warton Pleas. Melanch. 113 Night..Sister of *ebon-sceptred Hecat, hail! |
| 1818 Keats Endym. i. 147 With *ebon-tipped flutes. |
Hence
ˈebonine a., dark, sombre.
| 1881 Palgrave Visions of Eng. 292 Through that ebonine gate of doom The thrice five thousand are flown. |