Picture one small animal from the far northern forests, with fur so dark and so fine that people have paid fortunes for it. Almost everything this word does can be traced back to that animal. The skin becomes a coat, the hairs become a painter's brush, and the colour of the fur is borrowed as a name for black and for deep brown.
English took the word in the 1200s from Old French sable (also martre sable, 'sable marten'), which came through Medieval Latin sabelum and Middle Low German sabel from a Slavic word for the animal; compare Russian со́боль. The animal and its fur came first, and the colour senses are later.
這個字大約十三世紀進入英文，經過古法文 sable，更早來自斯拉夫語（俄文 со́боль 就是貂）。它是跟著毛皮貿易一路傳過來的。所以先有動物和毛皮的意思，顏色的意思是後來才長出來的。
Wiktionary entry for sable (packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:897676239:38213)
From the picture
從毛色借來的顏色
貂毛深到看起來像黑的。人先拿它來比顏色，說某樣東西「像貂毛那樣黑」，說久了這個字自己就變成顏色的名字。
adjective · C2
Black, or so dark that it looks black. In the writing we have, it turns up mostly in poems, older stories and writing that is meant to sound grand, and it often carries a heavy or gloomy feeling as well as a colour.
墨黑的；深黑的
noun · C1
A small dark-brown animal with a long thin body, living in the cold forests of northern Europe and Asia; also the soft, very costly fur that comes from it, and a coat made from that fur.
貂；貂皮
noun · C2
A soft artist's paintbrush whose hairs come from a sable or a related marten. Brushes of this kind are often sold under the name kolinsky sable.
貂毛筆