Etymology

sable

sa·ble
S1A1B3L1E1

Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Middle English sable ← Old French sable ← Medieval Latin sabelum
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The story

  1. Slavic · derived from
  2. Middle Low German · derived fromsabel
  3. Medieval Latin · derived fromsabelum
  4. Old French · derived fromsable
  5. Middle English · inherited fromsable
  6. English todaysable

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.