Other forms: ivories
Ivory is a creamy white, like an elephant's tusk. An ivory dress, ivory paint, ivory keys.
As a material it is elephant tusk, and the international trade in it has been banned since 1989 — the ban is credited with slowing the killing, though poaching continues. Piano keys have been plastic for decades. An ivory tower means a place cut off from ordinary life.
1adjectiveivoryA creamy white colour.
“The bride wore an ivory silk dress rather than a pure white one.”
2nounhardThe hard white material of elephant tusks.
“Poachers kill elephants for their ivory, which is then sold illegally.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
ivory is a colour, or a material.
Anglo-Norman ivurie comes from Latin ebur, ivory, which came in turn from an Egyptian word for the elephant.
afa-pro
*leb-
egy
ꜣbw — elephant, ivory, Elephantine
egx-dem
yb — ivory, Elephantine
Latin
eboreus — in or of ivory
Anglo-Norman
ivurie
Middle English
yvory
English, today
ivory
Built from
From Middle English yvory, ivorie, from Anglo-Norman ivurie, from Latin eboreus (“in or of ivory”) adjective of ebur (“ivory”) (genitive eboris), from egx-dem yb (“ivory, Elephantine”) (compare cop ⲓⲏⲃ (“Elephantine”)), from egy ꜣbw (“elephant, ivory, Elephantine”), from afa-pro leb-. Displaced native elpendbān.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA