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Sable black

.

Expressed in heraldry by horizontal lines crossing perpendicular ones.

In English heraldry escutcheons are varied by seven colours; foreign heralds add two more.

A suit of sables. A rich courtly dress. By the statue of apparel (24 Henry VIII. c. 13) it is ordained that none under the degree of an earl shall use sables. Bishop tells us that a thousand ducats were sometimes given for a “face of sables” (Blossoms, 1577). Ben Jonson says, “Would you not laugh to meet a great councillor of state in a flat cap, with trunk-hose … and yond haber-dasher in a velvet gown trimmed with sables?” (Discoveries.)


“So long? Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for Iʹll have a suit of sables.”—Shakespeare: Hamlet, iii. 2.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Sabbath Day’s Journey (Exodus xvi. 29; Acts i. 12)
Sabbath of Sound (The)
Sabbathians
Sabbatical Year
Sabeans
Sabeanism
Sabeism
Sabellians
Sabiens
Sable
Sable black
Sablonnière (La)
Sabra
Sabreur
Sabrina (Latin)
Saccharine Principle in Things (The)
Saccharissa
Sacco Benedetto or Saco Bendito [the blessed sack or cloak]
Sachem
Sachentege
Sack