Etymology
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.
Adjective
sepia (comparative more sepia, superlative most sepia)
- 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.
Translations
of a dark reddish-brown colour
Noun
sēpia f (genitive sēpiae); first declension
- a cuttlefish
- the secretion of a cuttlefish used as ink
Descendants
- Istriot:
- Italo-Romance:
- Padanian:
- ⇒ Ligurian: sepieta
- Piedmontese: sepia
- Venetian: sepa
- Northern Gallo-Romance:
- Occitano-Romance:
- Ibero-Romance:
- ⇒ Asturian: chipirón
- >? Mozarabic:
- → Asturian: xibiones (augmentative, plural)
- → Old Galician-Portuguese:
- → Spanish: jibia
- Borrowings:
References
- “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, volumes 11: S–Si, page 478
- Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1911) “sēpia”, in Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), page 589
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsɛ.pja/
- Rhymes: -ɛpja
- Syllabification: se‧pia
Further reading
- sepia in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsepja/ [ˈse.pja]
- Rhymes: -epja
- Syllabification: se‧pia