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sable adj. Obs. Often Offens. [Specific use of sable as applied to a black-skinned person.]
1. A literary epithet for an Aboriginal person, with a rhetorical range extending from romantic elevation to ironic denigration. Cf. black adj.1 2 c & d.

1817 Sydney Gaz. 4 Jan. 3/3, I am notwithstanding one of those who wish to introduce civilization, and the pure doctrines of the Christian religion among the sable sons of Australia.   1823 W.C. Wentworth Australasia 5 To you, ye sable hunters, sweeter too To spy the track of bounding kangaroo.   1830 R. Dawson Present State Aust. 66 When a poor gin offends her sable lord, he taps her over the head.   1839 S. Austral. Rec. (London) 1 Nov. 257 We found the women and children, and many of the men, lamenting in a most piteous manner, their sable faces bathed in tears, the deaths of the two men.   1843 Sydney Morning Herald 11 Aug. 3/3 The folds of the Australian Agricultural Company have been visited by those sable delinquents and several sheep taken away.   1850 Representative (Sydney) 25 July 3/2 The sable child of the wild Australian bush.   1862 G.T. Lloyd Thirty-Three Yrs. Tas. & Vic. 427 Those sable robbers were detected.   1880 Bulletin (Sydney) 15 May 1/1 The Executive in its wisdom decided to execute the blackfellow who a little while ago shot one of his sable countrymen at Dubbo.   1889 J.H.L. Zillmann Past & Present Austral. Life 57 He preferred to live on with the blacks, and remain with his sable wives, and half-caste children.


2. Compounds:

   sable brethren

1823 Sydney Gaz. 8 Jan. 2/2 He that rules over all has given liberally to hundreds, in order that, of their great abundance, a portion might be the more ably bestowed unto our sable brethren.   1839 S. Austral. Rec. (London) 1 Nov. 254 Many a right-hearted colonist will join me in ascribing equal forbearance to our sable brethren.   1850 J.B. Clutterbuck Port Phillip 48 Our sable brethren are extremely dirty in their persons.   1851 H. Melville Present State Aust. 360 Tom  ..  went frequently with parties that were despatched into the bush to capture his sable brethren.   1880 Queenslander (Brisbane) 6 Mar. 295/4 There are more of our sable brethren around and in the township of St. George than in any other township in the colony that I ever saw… Our publicans (or some of them) supply them with the nefarious stuff called by the name of ‘Mackay fighting rum’.   1926 A. Giles Exploring in ’Seventies 29 We soon found, however, that our sable brethren were becoming too bold.   1938 Chronicle (Adelaide) 28 July 68/4 Next day I rode several miles out of my way to a spot where Cabbage had told me his tribe were temporarily camping. Late that night I returned. I had been to ask my sable brethren a little vital question and get a truthful answer.


   sable companion

1793 W. Tench Compl. Acct. Settlement 119 Our fatigue to-day had been excessive: but our two sable companions seemed rather enlivened than exhausted by it.   1824 Hobart Town Gaz. 18 June 2/1 We are extremely sorry to communicate the death of a stock-owner of the Macquarie district, named Matthew Osburn, through spear wounds, received from Musquito and his sable companions.   1845 L. Leichhardt Jrnl. Overland Exped. Aust. (1847) 11 Oct. 430 To shew my sable companions that their secret manoeuvres only tended to increase their own labour, I ordered the bullocks to be loaded immediately.   1869 Maryborough Chron. 21 Jan. 2/7 After returning to their camping place the trooper invariably received his share of the drink purchased, which he carefully retained in bottles and reserved for use as a conclusive proof in court that something stronger than water had been disposed of to his sable companions.   1889 Cairns Post 6 Mar. 2/4 He has shown both pluck and energy in tackling the scrub with only one black-boy, he and his sable companion at the same time carrying their arms, ammunition, bush implements and provisions.   1909 Bulletin (Sydney) 6 May 13/2 ‘Combo-ism’ is the order of the day. Everyone (more or less) has a sable ‘companion’.   1944 Longreach Leader 13 Dec. 17/2 Old Jack carried a six gun and with one sable companion in a hefty native named by his old boss ‘Alma’, rode a line of fence some twenty miles long.


   sable friend

1793 W. Tench Compl. Acct. Settlement 56 Our party now thought it time to proceed on their original expedition, and having taken leave of their sable friends, rowed to some distance, where they landed, and set out for Broken Bay.   1832 Austral. (Sydney) 27 Jan. 3/5 But on my landing I found my sable friends had multiplied greatly, and to no less a number than one hundred and fifty of both sexes, and of all ages and sizes. They painted themselves most gaily to receive us, and showed great joy when I arrived.   1833 Backhouse & Tylor Life & Labours G.W. Walker 3 Dec. (1862) 170 W.J. Darling appeared much pleased to see us, and hardly less so, our sable friends.   1840 G.A. Robinson Jrnls. G.A. Robinson, Chief Protector 28 Feb. (1998) I. 182 Set off on foot, after taking leave of my sable friends.   1852 J. Morgan Life & Adventures W. Buckley 128 My sable friends were not at all pleased at our leaving.   1883 E.M. Curr Recoll. Squatting Vic. 127 The arrival of a pair of our sable friends from up the river.   1929 Register News-Pictorial (Adelaide) 13 Mar. 6/3 My ‘sable’ friend was intensely interested, especially in the doings of the dog.


   sable gentleman

1827 Sydney Gaz. 28 Nov. 2/3 A Gentleman happening to visit the spot on business, actually discovered a black native in the act of sitting upon a barrel [of gunpowder], with a pipe in his mouth, from which the sable gentleman, unconscious of the danger to himself, his fellow creatures, the buildings and the ships, was leisurely puffing forth immense clouds.   1843 Sydney Morning Herald 6 July 2/7 It is to be hoped the lately appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Upper District here will, with his border police force, teach these sable gentlemen that their recent outrages will not escape unpunished.   1845 L. Leichhardt Jrnl. Overland Exped. Aust. (1847) 12 Feb. 145 My companions were highly alarmed at the behaviour of the sable gentlemen.   1848 Adelaide Miscellany 16 Sept. 107, I left these sable gentlemen in the height of their enjoyment.   1865 S. Austral. Register (Adelaide) 9 Feb. 3/5 A native and his lubra walking along the street, the sable gentleman in front, walking very upright, carrying nothing, evidently considering himself a lord.   1883 Maitland Mercury 13 Oct. (Suppl.) 4/4 The sable gentleman is a real good runner.   1905 Northern Miner (Charters Towers) 19 July 2/6, I can quite understand the station manager's objection to police interference especially as interpreted by the sable gentleman in uniform, who accompanies the constable.


   sable majesty

1826 Austral. (Sydney) 1 Mar. 3/3 His sable Majesty, Bungaree, made his appearance at the Police Office, on Tuesday, to request from the Superintendent of Police, a fresh supply of constables staves, with a view, as he stated, to keep his people in good order.   1831 Sydney Herald 14 Nov. 4/1 Before the party broke up, his sable Majesty became done up with bull; and  ..  was floored by a waddie.   1844 Maitland Mercury 6 Jan. 3/2 Among the company assembled I noticed his sable Majesty Meinigil Jack.   1870 Illustr. Austral. News (Melbourne) 7 Nov. 198/4 King Jerry, the last monarch of his tribe, died in the Geelong Hospital… His sable majesty had long been ailing.   1881 Bulletin (Sydney) 2 July 9/1 As the niggers numbered 100 and the blankets only reached 52, the majority of the haricot-snake devourers—his sable Majesty among the rest—were literally left out in the cold.   1910 Clarence & Richmond Examiner (Grafton) 31 Dec. 7/2 The remaining half of a huge meat pie I placed before her sable majesty in propitiation.


   sable tribe

1819 Sydney Gaz. 24 July 3/1 Nothing of this kind is done for the sable tribes of New Holland.   1844 Colonial Observer (Sydney) 31 Oct. 1/1 There was a public meeting held last Friday evening, if not of the sable tribes of Sydney and its vicinity, at least of the men in sables who support Bishop Broughton.   1852 Awful Execution 17 Convicts 3 Thousands of pounds have been expended  ..  in endeavouring to convert  ..  the sable tribes of the west.   1873 J. Bonwick Tasmanian Lily 47 As he listened to the strange coo-ee of the sable tribes  ..  little thought that hearty lads and bonnie lassies of his own colour would laugh in those bright glades.   1897 Petersburg Times 9 Apr. 7/2 The horses which stood near the tent seemed pleased with the sudden and extraordinary change, and no doubt it would be welcome to the sable tribes far down the arid interior.


   sable warrior

1828 Sydney Monitor 29 Nov. 1413/2 Thus did old O'Donnel seat himself among these sable warriors.   1843 Sydney Morning Herald 24 May 4/6 We have had the pleasure of seeing some of these sable warriors.   1845 C.J. Baker Sydney & Melbourne 41 Instead of tents the sable warriors had wigwams, after the manner of their ancestors.   1869 Wallaroo Times 27 Feb. 3/1 As the sun went down immense fires were lighted, and by the pale light of the moon, and the ruddy glare of the fires, the sable warriors yelled, danced, and performed.   1906 A.B. Paterson Outback Marriage 174 Here the sable warriors sat and smoked all day long, tobacco being their only civilised possession.   1930 Gippsland Times (Sale) 2 Jan. 6/3 Seaspray itself is built on a site that, in ancient days, was a battle ground for the blacks. The sable warriors from the north and south of Gippsland met there periodically and settled their differences.