Sepian

//ˈsiːpiən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A black American or African American. US, capitalized, dated, sometimes

    "Chicago Defender columnists forewarned viewers that despite [The World, the Flesh and the Devil's] marketing as the "first interracial romance between male Sepian and non-Sepian female star," the only personal contact between Belafonte and Stevens occurs during the haircut scene and when she takes his hand."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of the sepia, i.e. the cuttlefish. archaic

    "He who dived in the swirling Maelstrom saw none to compare with them in horror: tentacular convolutions, tumid bulges, glaring orbs of sepian deformity, would have looked to him innocence beside such incarnations of hatefulness..."

  2. 2
    Of a dark or inky colour, often in reference to skin pigmentation. dated

    "Randomly selecting a fruit fly with sepian (dark brown) eyes"

  3. 3
    Belonging to or pertaining to black Americans or African Americans, who typically have dark pigmentation of the skin. US, dated

    "Nineteenth century sepian musicals included Sam T. Jack's "Creoles" -1890..."

Synonyms

All synonyms
african-american

Example

More examples

"He who dived in the swirling Maelstrom saw none to compare with them in horror: tentacular convolutions, tumid bulges, glaring orbs of sepian deformity, would have looked to him innocence beside such incarnations of hatefulness..."

Etymology

From sepia + -n.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.