Sepia means toned a warm brown, like an old photograph. A sepia print, sepia tones, faded to sepia.
Victorian photographs were toned this way on purpose, because converting the silver made the print last far longer — the colour is a preservation method that became a style. The pigment came from cuttlefish ink, and the Latin sepia is the cuttlefish itself.
1adjectivesepiaToned a warm brown.
“The old sepia photograph showed my great-grandparents on their wedding day.”
sepia is a colour.
Latin sepia comes from Greek sepia, a cuttlefish. The pigment was made from its ink.
Ancient Greek
σηπία
Latin
sēpia — cuttlefish
English, today
sepia
Latin sēpia (“cuttlefish”), from Ancient Greek σηπία. Cognate with Italian seppia, Portuguese siba and Spanish sepia.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA