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/
• 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 colour:  

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. (colour)  Of a dark reddish-brown colour.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess‎:

     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, p 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.

• sepiolite

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

• Aspie, aspie, paise

• 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

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

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈseː.pi.a/

sēpia f (genitive sēpiae); first declension

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

First declension.

• (cuttlefish): lōlīgō

• English: sepia
• French: seiche
• Galician: xiba
• Hungarian: szépia
• Italian: seppia
• Romanian: sepia, sepie
• Russian: сепия (sepija)
• Spanish: jibia, chipirón

• 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, 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

sepia f (plural sepias)

1. cuttlefish