sinopia means A reddish-brown ochre-like pigment, derived from sinople, used in traditional oil painting and as the cartoon for frescos. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
sinopia is pronounced /sɪˈnəʊpɪə/.
Why “sinopia” is a great word
SINOPIA — [Noun] A reddish-brown earth pigment used in fresco painting and the preliminary sketch drawn directly on the wall with that pigment. From Italian sinopia, from Latin sinōpis, from Greek sinōpis, from Sinōpē, a city on the Black Sea known for this pigment. Unlike sinoper (which denotes only the raw ochre) or cartoon (a full-scale drawing on paper), sinopia is the ghost in the plaster: the direct, sanguine line on fresh intonaco, the hidden geometry of a halo, the artist’s final private thought before the irreversible labor of color. It is the fragile, permanent idea buried beneath the finished certainty—a testament to all that must be concealed for the final vision to cohere.
noun
- A reddish-brown ochre-like pigment, derived from sinople, used in traditional oil painting and as the cartoon for frescos.
- The rough sketch (executed in sinopia) which underlies a fresco.“Today many of the sinopias have been uncovered by a method called stacco.”