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.
From the word’s history
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, "sable"
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