Sepia (pronounced see-pee-uh)
(1)
A dark brown pigment obtained from the ink-like secretion of various cuttlefish,
often used with brush or pen in drawing.
(2)
A drawing made with this pigment.
(3)
A photograph or digital image in the tone recognized as “sepia”.
(4)
A specific range of shades of brown, which tend to a reddish tincture.
(5)
In photography, a print or photograph rendered within this color range, associated
especially with early types such as calotype.
Now easily replicated in software, when using physical film stock it can
be produced by first bleaching a print (after fixing), then immersing it for a
short time in a solution of sodium sulphide or of alkaline thiourea.
(6)
Any of several cuttlefish of the genus Sepia, producing a dark fluid used
naturally for defense and, by humans, in various mixes of ink (mostly archaic
but still used in technical literature).
1821:
From the Italian seppia (cuttlefish),
from the Latin sēpia, from the
Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía) (cuttlefish
(and its secretion)), the origin of which is uncertain, the orthodox
explanation being it was from the Ancient Greek σήπειν (sḗpein) (to make rotten) but there are
etymologists who suggest while that’s “semantically possible” (on the basis of
the “rotten:” smelling ink), it’s may be from a pre-Greek source. The Greek sḗpein was related to σήψ (sḗps) (a kind of lizard; also a serpent,
the bite of which was alleged to cause putrefaction”). The Greek sēpía
was akin to sepsis. Sepia &
sepian are nouns & adjectives and sepialike (also as sepia-like) is an adjectives;
the noun plural is sepias.
The
use of the word to describe the brown pigment extracted from the secretions of
cuttlefish dates from the 1820s and the “brownish” meaning as applied to
drawings was first recorded in English in 1863 (originally as “sepia drawing”);
it was extended later to photography and film and it remains a motif in “retro”
art and verisimilitude in film & television. Reflecting the influence of Classical & Medieval
Latin in the formation of zoological taxonomy, sepia had been used of the cuttlefish
as early as the late-fourteenth century but today such use is rare. The Latin was also the source of words in a
number of languages including the Bulgarian се́пия (sépija), the Catalan sèpia,
the Esperanto sepio, the Finnish seepia, the French sépia, the Galician
sepia, the German Sepia, the Hungarian szépia, the Japanese: セピア色 (sepiairo), the Portuguese sépia,
the Romanian sepia, the Russian се́пия (sépija), the Spanish sepia, the Swedish sepia, the
Tagalog sepia and the Turkish sepia.
The
noun sepiolite (in mineralogy, a hydrated magnesium silicate, clay mineral used
for carving into decorative articles and smoking pipes (known also as
meerschaum), from the same etymological origin as sepia, picked up the name
because of the resemblance to cuttlebone.
The -lite suffix (when used formally) was a representation of the
Ancient Greek λίθος (líthos) (stone)
and was appended to form the names of rocks and minerals. In informal use (in commerce or humorously
(and in politics often disparagingly)) it's a phonetic version of “light” in
the sense of “smaller, lesser, reduced in weight”; it's used often for cut-down
(sometimes free) versions of software, diet drinks etc.
Montage of Lindsay Lohan red-carpet stills, rendered in vintage calotype sepia.
As
an adjective sepian (the comparative more sepian, the superlative most sepian) began
life meaning (1) of or pertaining to the sepia (in the sense of the cuttlefish
or its dark pigment) and (2) of the color (not of necessity produced with the
derived ink). In the post-war Unites
States, sepia was adopted to refer to some of those with darker pigmentation of
the skin, specifically applied to black Americans or African Americans. The emergence was because in many parts of
the US, use of most offensive of the N-words had become socially less acceptable
in many circles and as this disapprobation trickled down the social spectrum, new
slurs were created, sepian presumably attractive because of the history as a
description of colors of paint, fabrics etc.
It was thus separated from ethnic identity and could thus be defended as
wholly neutral in use. As a term, it was
neither sufficiently widely adopted nor endured in use for long enough for any pejorative
association to become attached so it never became part of the linguistic
treadmill.
As an artistic device, sepia is sometimes used in film. In The Wizard of Oz (1939), one of the most famous uses was to contrast the bleak, sepia-toned scenes in Kansas with the vibrant (techni-) color in the Land of Oz. A different effect was achieved in The Shape of Water (2017) (which is either a fantasy or science fiction (SF) film depending on who is writing the review), the sepia-toned sequences depicting the protagonist's memories and dreams. Presumably, directors find sepia a useful device because black & white (the other obvious alternative) has through use become vested with connotations, gained not only from of the association with film noir.
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