sepia

plural sepias

1. uncountableA dark brown pigment made from the secretions of the cuttlefish.First known use 1820s

   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.

   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

2. uncountableA dark, slightly reddish, brown colour.
3. broadlycountableA sepia-coloured drawing or photograph.
4. archaiccountableA cuttlefish.First known use 16th c.

comparative more sepia · superlative most sepia

1. Of a dark reddish-brown colour.

   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.

   1998 November 22, Lance Parkin, “Infinity and Beyond” (chapter 12), in The Infinity Doctors, BBC Books, →ISBN, page 209

   1 more example

   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.

   1963, Margery Allingham, “Miss Thyrza’s Chair”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 41