ebon

See also: Ebon

English

Alternative forms

• hebene (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French eban (modern ébène), from Latin ebenus, from Ancient Greek ἔβενος (ébenos, “ebony tree”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛbən/

Noun

ebon (plural ebons)

1. (now poetic) Ebony; an ebony tree.

Adjective

ebon (comparative more ebon, superlative most ebon)

1. (poetic) Made of ebony.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     “A stranger knight,” sayd he, “unknowne by name, / But knowne by fame, and by an Hebene speare […].”

   • 1745, Edward Young, Night-Thoughts, section I:

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

2. (poetic) Black in colour.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 238:

     ...flowers stood beside, in an alabaster vase—exotics, that say, "our growth has been precious." A lute leant against the ebon stand; but the face of the lady wore the expression of deep and touching sorrow.

   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 279:

     Woona had silently and swiftly backed away; and her ebon face, Ursula saw, had changed into leaden flabbiness with some horrible fear.

Anagrams

• Beno, Boen, Bone, Bône, bone