ebony: [15] Ebony is ultimately of Semitic origin. The Greeks took it from some Middle Eastern source, perhaps Egyptian hbnj, and turned it into ébenos. This made its way via Latin ebenus, later ebanus, and Old French eban into English. At first English simply used the French form (which as ebon survived into modern times as an archaism), but from the 16th century forms ending in -y began to supersede it.
dark, hard wood favored for carving, musical instruments, etc., 1590s, perhaps an extended form of Middle English ebon, or from hebenyf (late 14c.), perhaps a Middle English misreading of Latin hebeninus "of ebony," from Greek ebeninos, from ebenos "ebony," probably from Egyptian hbnj or another Semitic source. Figurative use to suggest intense blackness is from 1620s. As an adjective, "of ebony, made of ebony," from 1590s; in reference to skin color of Africans, by 1813. French ébène, Old High German ebenus (German Ebenholz) are from Latin ebenus.
