Talk:ebony

Gender and missing sense
Fr sense 1 requires gender

Note: there is a wellknown use of the word that is hardly politically correct. I hesitate to include it. Brya 21:37, 24 January 2006 (UTC)


 * ✅ French now has gender; black skin sense was added. Equinox ◑ 16:07, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

Porn sense
Seems to be quite widely used in porn (and yep, we have a gloss for this: ) to denote black skin. Equinox ◑ 17:45, 6 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Now added. Equinox ◑ 01:00, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Hello, in french
« bois d'ébène» has no special porno meaning that I know of (BTW, could you please be more explicit about any anglo-saxon reserve ? since we are here to increase our knowledge...), but may be nowadays used in two cases : 1/ slave trading - & 2/ having a sexual preference for black partners.

1/ As in the phrase (and lo ! be wary about the accents !): «'' Les marchands de bois d'ébène ne vendaient pas de planches provenant d'un ébénier, mais bien des esclaves » (« The slave traders did not sell planks made out of an ebony tree, but slaves »)...

2/ As in the phrase « Il (ou elle) fait dans le bois d'ébène » which does not mean « He(or she) makes a living trading ebony wood » but « He (or she) has a black lover ».

And about porn films, we'd rather say, without mentioning « ébène » : « ''Je viens de revoir un bon film des années 70 avec Pam Grier. Bon dieu, quelle belle nègresse c'était ! » ("I just saw again a good old '70 movie with Pam Grier, god what a lush black woman she was ! ''"» (since in usual french « nègre » and « négresse » & take care again of the accents é & è ! is highly deprecative, while « belle négresse » is highly eulogistic...).

And BTW, what is « tendu » doing in the § « See also » ? It seems a technical word used in choregraphy ...Or is « ebony » in english slang the equivalent of « turgid » ?

T.y. Arapaima 08:59, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

Catalan translation
Catalan translations are wrong. They should be: Both in tree and wood. And it should not be in the translations when adjective.
 * Catalan: eben, banús

Poetically or euphemistically black skinned?
Isn't ebony used poetically or euphemistically to say 'black'? 92.7.205.102 16:12, 12 March 2011 (UTC)


 * ✅ Already got adjective sense for black skin. Equinox ◑ 16:07, 13 July 2019 (UTC)

The wood: change in meaning over time?
e.g. Wikipedia says "African blackwood is no longer regarded as ebony, a name now reserved for a limited number of timbers yielded by the genus Diospyros; these are more of a matte appearance and are more brittle." Equinox ◑ 14:00, 13 July 2019 (UTC)