ebon

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   literary: deep black in color, like ebony

   Her ebon hair shone in the candlelight.

2. 2
   adj

   made of ebony wood

   The clock stood on an ebon base polished to a dark gloss.

3. 3
   noun

   archaic or poetic: ebony wood or an ebony tree

   The carver contrasted pale ivory with dense ebon.

Through Old French eban or eben from Latin ebenus and Greek ebenos, 'ebony tree or wood.' Ebon preserves an older shortened form beside ebony. Because ebony heartwood is characteristically very dark, the material name developed a literary adjective meaning deep black.

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