sepia

Borrowed from Latin sēpia (“cuttlefish”), from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía). Cognate with Italian seppia, Portuguese siba, and Spanish sepia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːpiə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːpiə

sepia (countable and uncountable, plural sepias)

1. (uncountable) A dark brown pigment made from the secretions of the cuttlefish. [from 1820s]
   • 1930, A[loys] Merz, M[orris] Rea Paul, “Sepia”, in “Notes on Color Names”, in A Dictionary of Color, New York City: McGraw-Hill, page 179:

     Sepia had some use in ancient times as a writing ink, and in modern times has has occasionally been used as a pigment, but it never attained any popularity, as it is extremely fugitive.

2. (uncountable) A dark, slightly reddish, brown colour.

   sepia:  

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

• Appendix:Colors

sepia (comparative more sepia, superlative most sepia)

1. Of a dark reddish-brown colour.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Miss Thyrza’s Chair”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 41:

     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.

   • 1998 November 22, Lance Parkin, “Infinity and Beyond” (chapter 12), in The Infinity Doctors, BBC Books, →ISBN, 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.

• Aspie, aspie, paise

From Middle Dutch sepia, a direct borrowing from Latin sepia, and reinforced by French or Italian.

• Audio:

  (file)

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 Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈseː.pi.a]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsɛː.pi.a]

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^[1]
• “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, volume 11: S–Si, page 478
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “sēpia”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 589

Learned borrowing 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 [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024