Talk:ebony

Gender and missing sense

Fr sense 1 requires gender

Note: there is a wellknown use of the word that is hardly politically correct. I hesitate to include it. Brya 21:37, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

 Done French now has gender; black skin sense was added. Equinox ◑ 16:07, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

Porn sense

Seems to be quite widely used in porn (and yep, we have a gloss for this: {{pornography}}) to denote black skin. Equinox ◑ 17:45, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Now added. Equinox ◑ 01:00, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Hello, in french

« bois d'ébène» has no special porno meaning that I know of (BTW, could you please be more explicit about any anglo-saxon reserve ? since we are here to increase our knowledge...) , but may be nowadays used in two cases : 1/ slave trading - & 2/ having a sexual preference for black partners.

1/ As in the phrase (and lo ! be wary about the accents !): « Les marchands de bois d'ébène ne vendaient pas de planches provenant d'un ébénier, mais bien des esclaves » (« The slave traders did not sell planks made out of an ebony tree, but slaves »)...

2/ As in the phrase « Il (ou elle) fait dans le bois d'ébène » which does not mean « He(or she) makes a living trading ebony wood » but « He (or she) has a black lover ».

And about porn films, we'd rather say, without mentioning « ébène » : « Je viens de revoir un bon film des années 70 avec Pam Grier. Bon dieu, quelle belle nègresse c'était ! » ("I just saw again a good old '70 movie with Pam Grier, god what a lush black woman she was ! "» (since in usual french « nègre » and « négresse » & take care again of the accents é & è ! is highly deprecative, while « belle négresse » is highly eulogistic...).

And BTW, what is « tendu » doing in the § « See also »  ? It seems a technical word used in choregraphy ...Or is « ebony » in english slang the equivalent of « turgid » ?

T.y. Arapaima 08:59, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Catalan translation

Catalan translations are wrong. They should be:

* Catalan: {{t|ca|eben|m}}, {{t|ca|banús|m}}

Both in tree and wood. And it should not be in the translations when adjective.

Poetically or euphemistically black skinned?

Isn't ebony used poetically or euphemistically to say 'black'? 92.7.205.102 16:12, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

 Done Already got adjective sense for black skin. Equinox ◑ 16:07, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

The wood: change in meaning over time?

e.g. Wikipedia says "African blackwood is no longer regarded as ebony, a name now reserved for a limited number of timbers yielded by the genus Diospyros; these are more of a matte appearance and are more brittle." Equinox ◑ 14:00, 13 July 2019 (UTC)