Meaning

noun a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

noun a shade of white the color of bleached bones

originFrom Middle English yvory, ivorie, from Anglo-Norman ivurie, from Latin eboreus (“in or of ivory”) adjective of ebur (“ivory”) (genitive eboris), from Demotic Egyptian yb (“ivory, Elephantine”) (compare Coptic ⲓⲏⲃ (iēb, “Elephantine”)), from Egyptian ꜣbw (“elephant, ivory, Elephantine”), from Proto-Afroasiatic *leb-. Displaced native Old English elpendbān (literally “elephant bone”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0