sepia

See also: Sepia, sépia, sępia, and sępią

English

A sepia photograph.

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːpiə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːpiə

Noun

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.]

Related terms

• sepian
• sepiolite

 

Translations

pigment

• Bulgarian: се́пия f (sépija)
• Catalan: sépia (ca) f
• Finnish: seepia (fi)
• French: sépia (fr) m
• Galician: sepia (gl) f
• German: Sepia (de) f
• Hungarian: szépia (hu)
• Irish: dúch cudail m
• Japanese: セピア (sepia)
• Portuguese: sépia (pt) f
• Romanian: sepia (ro) f
• Russian: се́пия (ru) f (sépija)
• Spanish: sepia (es) f
• Swedish: sepia (sv) c
• Tagalog: sepya
• Turkish: sepya (tr)

colour

• Bulgarian: се́пия f (sépija)
• Catalan: sèpia (ca) m
• Esperanto: sepio
• Finnish: seepia (fi)
• French: sépia (fr) m
• Galician: sepia (gl) m
• German: Sepia (de) f
• Hungarian: szépia (hu)
• Japanese: セピア色 (sepiairo)
• Maori: haurāhina
• Portuguese: sépia (pt)
• Romanian: sepia (ro) f
• Tagalog: sepya
• Turkish: sepya (tr)

drawing

• French: sépia (fr) m
• Japanese: セピア画 (sepiaga)
• Portuguese: sépia (pt)
• Romanian: sepia (ro) f

cuttlefish — see cuttlefish

See also

• Appendix:Colors

• black and white
• color
• cuttlefish
• ink sac

 

Adjective

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.

Translations

of a dark reddish-brown colour

• Bulgarian: се́пия (sépija)
• Catalan: sèpia (ca), sépia (ca)
• Esperanto: sepia
• French: sépia (fr)
• Japanese: セピア色の (sepiairo no)
• Portuguese: sépia (pt)
• Romanian: sepia (ro)
• Swedish: sepiafärgad (sv)

Anagrams

• Aspie, aspie, paise

Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

sepia f or m (uncountable)

1. cuttlefish

Synonyms

• (cuttlefish): zeekat

Noun

sepia n (uncountable)

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

Further reading

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

Latin

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

sēpia f (genitive sēpiae); first declension

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

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	sēpia	sēpiae
genitive	sēpiae	sēpiārum
dative	sēpiae	sēpiīs
accusative	sēpiam	sēpiās
ablative	sēpiā	sēpiīs
vocative	sēpia	sēpiae

Synonyms

• (cuttlefish): lōlīgō

Descendants

• Istriot:
  • sipa ⇒ sipariola
    • → Serbo-Croatian: sipa, сипа
• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: seppia
  • Neapolitan: ceccia, seccia
  • Sicilian: siccia
• Padanian:
  • ⇒ Ligurian: sepieta
  • Piedmontese: sepia
  • Venetan: sepa
• Northern Gallo-Romance:
  • French: seiche
• Occitano-Romance:
  • Catalan: sípia, sépia ⇒ sepiera
  • Old Occitan: sepia, sepcha
    • Occitan: sépia (all dialects)

      Gascon: sipa

      Vivaro-Alpine: supia

• Ibero-Romance:
  • ⇒ Asturian: chipirón
    • → Spanish: chipirón
  • >? Mozarabic:
    • → Asturian: xibiones (augmentative, plural)
    • → Old Galician-Portuguese:
      • Galician: xiba
      • Portuguese: siba
    • → Spanish: jibia
• Borrowings:
  • → English: sepia
  • → Hungarian: szépia
  • → Polish: sepia
  • → Portuguese: sépia
  • → Romanian: sepia, sepie
  • → Russian: сепия (sepija)
  • → Spanish: sepia

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

Polish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin sēpia, from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

sepia f

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

   Synonym: mątwa

Declension

Declension of sepia

	singular	plural
nominative	sepia	sepie
genitive	sepii	sepii/sepij (archaic)
dative	sepii	sepiom
accusative	sepię	sepie
instrumental	sepią	sepiami
locative	sepii	sepiach
vocative	sepio	sepie

Derived terms

adjective

• sepiowy

 

Further reading

• sepia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Spanish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin sēpia. Doublet of jibia.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

sepia f (plural sepias)

1. cuttlefish

   Synonyms: jibia, cachón, choco

2. (photography) sepia

Derived terms

• sepia faraón

 

Further reading

• “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], 2024 December 10