"sable [gentry]"

[Margaret Lee]

Probably unlike sable, 'sepia' and 'ebony' have been used by African Americans 
to refer to themselves. There was once a Sepia magazine, and 
Ebony magazine continues to be published.    

--Margaret Lee




________________________________
From: Joel S. Berson <Berson at ATT.NET>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Thu, July 21, 2011 7:10:59 PM
Subject: Re: "sable [gentry]"

At 7/21/2011 02:26 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>Indeed, but I was looking specifically for "sable gentry", partly
>because I was making the case (to myself, at least) that the OED
>entry for "sable" should have an entry for that collocation along
>with that for "his sable excellency", "sable majesty", and such.  In
>fact, the entry doesn't include any cites for "sable gentry", much
>less an actual subentry for it.

Yes, these are presumably joc., or worse.  I merely meant that
"sable" as an adj. referring to "people of colour" was probably
fairly common, and not always joc.

Joel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org