| 释义 |
ebon, n. and a.|ˈɛbən|
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. ἔβενος, 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. n.
1. A hard black wood, the product of a tree belonging to the family Ebenaceæ, mentioned in very early times as an article of import from the East; = ebony. Now only poet.
[1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. lii. (1495) 633 Ebenus is a tree growynge in Ethiopia wyth blacke coloure.] c1440Promp. Parv. 135 Eban, tre, ebanus. 1558Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 96 a, It is very good..also to make tables and coffers of..Hebene. 1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, De l' Hebene, a wood called Heben. 1627May Lucan x. 139 Pillars there Not covered with ægyptian Eben were. 1697Dryden Virgil (1806) I. 207 India black ebon and white iv'ry bears. 1846Lytton Lucretia (1853) 301 Dark as ebon, spreads the one wing.
†2. The tree itself, Diospyros Ebenus, a native of Ceylon, Madagascar, and Mauritius. Obs.
1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 284 Wodde of Heben. 1601Holland Pliny I. 148 Great woods of Ebene..alwaies greene. 1623Cockeram 111, 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.
a1599Spenser Ruines of Time Wks. (1678) 139 A curious Coffer made of Heben wood. 1613Purchas Pilgr. I. vii. xi. 595 They found excellent Eben Trees. 1813Scott 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’.
1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 948 Deaths ebon dart. 1633P. Fletcher Pisc. Ecl. vii. xvii, Her eye-brow black, like to an ebon bow. 1737West Let. in Gray's Poems (1775) 20 Fate, whose ebon sceptre rules The Stygian deserts. 1742Young Nt. Th. i. 18 Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne. 1772Sir W. Jones Arcadia Poems (1777) 102 With ebon knots, and studs of silver, wrought. 1818Shelley Rev. Islam i. xxx, But when in ebon Mirror, Nightmare fell. 1863Longfellow Wayside Inn, 2nd Day, Interl. iii. 19 From out its ebon case his violin the minstrel drew.
3. adj. Of the colour of ebony; black, dark, sombre.
1607Heywood Fair M. of Exchange i. Wks. 1874 II. 16 As blind as Ebon night. 1632Milton L'Allegro 5 There under ebon shades..In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell. a1703Pomfret Poet. Wks. (1833) 116 Night..spreads her ebon curtains round. 1802Coleridge Sibyl. Leaves II. 196 Deep in the air and dark, substantial, black, An ebon mass. 1843Prescott Mexico iii. vi. (1864) 168 The image of the mystic deity..with ebon features.
¶4. Erroneously used for ‘ivory’.
1593G. Fletcher Licia Sonn. xxix. (1872) 109 Her Ebon thighes. Ibid. xxxix. (1872) 109 Those Ebon hands.
C. Comb.
a. similative, as ebon-black, ebon-coloured;
b. instrumental and parasynthetic, as ebon-faced, ebon-masted, ebon-sceptred, ebon-tipped, etc.
1592Greene Poems 85 How bright-eyed his Phillis was..When fro th' arches *ebon-black flew looks as a lightning.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 246 The *ebon coloured Inke. 1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 621/1 Melanosis may be found in the form of brown or ebon-coloured fluid.
1601Death Earl Huntington ii. i. in Hazl. Dodsley VIII. 256 Pitch-colour'd, *ebon-fac'd, blacker than black.
1845Hirst Poems 66 Royal vessels..*ebon masted.
1745T. Warton Pleas. Melanch. 113 Night..Sister of *ebon-sceptred Hecat, hail!
1818Keats Endym. i. 147 With *ebon-tipped flutes.
Hence ˈebonine a., dark, sombre.
1881Palgrave Visions of Eng. 292 Through that ebonine gate of doom The thrice five thousand are flown. |