sepia

From Latin sēpia, from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía, “cuttlefish”), from σήψ (sḗps, “a kind of lizard, also a kind of serpent whose bite was alleged to cause putrefaction”). Compare Italian seppia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːpiə/, (sometimes) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛpiə/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -iːpiə

sepia (countable and uncountable, plural sepias)

1. A dark brown pigment made from the secretions of the cuttlefish. [from 1820s]
2. A dark, slightly reddish, brown colour.

   sepia:  

3. (by extension, countable) A sepia-coloured drawing or photograph.
4. (archaic, countable) The cuttlefish. [from 16th c.]

sepia (comparative more sepia, superlative most sepia)

1. Of a dark reddish-brown colour.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.

   • 1985, Lance Parkin, The Infinity Doctors, page 209:

     Only now did he realise how few colours there had been at the end of the universe. The world had been sepia, drained of colour and light.

   • 2021 July 14, “Modern Images”, in RAIL, number 935, page 37, photo caption:

     Dawn mist rolling off the adjacent North Downs creates a sepia effect over the river with no need for digital enhancement.

• sepian
• sepiolite

• black and white
• color
• cuttlefish
• ink sac
• Appendix:Colors

• Aspie, aspie, paise

From Middle Dutch sepia, via French or Italian from Latin sepia.

• Audio

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sepia f or m (uncountable)

1. cuttlefish

• (cuttlefish): zeekat

sepia n (uncountable)

1. the color sepia
2. a style of yellowish/brownish-and-black photography

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “sepia”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

From Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía), often suggested to be from Ancient Greek σήπειν (sḗpein, “to make rotten”), but (per Beekes) could instead be a Pre-Greek word.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈseː.pi.a/, [ˈs̠eːpiä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈse.pi.a/, [ˈsɛːpiä]

sēpia f (genitive sēpiae); first declension

1. a cuttlefish
2. the secretion of a cuttlefish used as ink

First-declension noun.

• (cuttlefish): lōlīgō

• “sepia”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sepia”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sepia in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• sepia in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “sepia”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎
• “sepia”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “sēpia”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 11: S–Si, page 478
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “sēpia”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 589

Borrowed from Latin sēpia, from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛ.pja/
• Rhymes: -ɛpja
• Syllabification: se‧pia

sepia f

1. cephalopod ink
2. sepia (color)
3. (photography) sepia toning
4. cuttlefish

   Synonym: mątwa

• sepia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Learned borrowing from Latin sēpia. Doublet of jibia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsepja/ [ˈse.pja]
• Rhymes: -epja
• Syllabification: se‧pia

sepia f (plural sepias)

1. cuttlefish

   Synonyms: jibia, cachón, choco

2. (photography) sepia

• “sepia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014