sb. and a. 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. ἔβονος, 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. sb.
1. A hard black wood, the product of a tree belonging to the N.O. 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, trans. 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 (1631), S 2. Pillars there Not covered with Ægyptian Eben were.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 85/52. India, black Ebon and white Ivory 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 the 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, III. 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. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 948. Deaths ebon dart.
1633. P. Fletcher, Pisc. Ecl., VII. xvii. 48. Her eye-brow black, like to an ebon bow.
1737. West, Lett., 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. Longf., Wayside Inn, 2nd Day, Interl. III. 19. From out its ebon case his violin the minstrel drew.
3. adj. Of the color of ebony; black, dark, somber.
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, -colo(u)red; b. instrumental and parasynthetic, as ebon-faced, -masted, -sceptred, -tipped, etc.
1592. Greene, Poems, 85. How bright-eyed his Phillis was … When fro th’ arches *ebon-black flew looks as a lightning.
1588. Shaks., 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 Ebonine a., dark, somber.
1881. F. T. Palgrave, Visions of Eng., 292. Through that ebonine gate of doom The thrice five thousand are flown.
