Russian Language Exported: SOBOL
How Russian ‘soft gold’ conquered the world's languages.
The sable is a small, furry predator native to the Siberian taiga, renowned for its luxurious fur. The word also entered European languages (English ‘sable’, German ‘Zobel’, French ‘zibeline’) via Russian merchants, who were the main suppliers of this “soft gold” to Europe. Thus, the Russian name has become firmly established worldwide.