Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ebony

Ebony , noun

[French ébène, Latin ebenus, from Greek {not transcribed}; prob. of Semitic origin; compare Hebrew hobnīm, pl. Compare Ebon.]

A hard, heavy, and durable wood, which admits of a fine polish or gloss. The usual color is black, but it also occurs red or green.

The finest black ebony is the heartwood of Diospyros reticulata, of the Mauritius. Other species of the same genus (D. Ebenum, Melanoxylon, etc.), furnish the ebony of the East Indies and Ceylon. The West Indian green ebony is from a leguminous tree (Brya Ebenus), and from the Excacaria glandulosa.

Ebony , adjective

Made of ebony, or resembling ebony; black; as, an ebony countenance.
This ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling. — Poe