dapple

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): [ˈdæpəɫ]

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æpəl

Noun

dapple (plural dapples)

1. A mottled marking, usually in clusters.
2. An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.
   • 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge tr., Friedrich von Schiller, The Death of Wallenstein, [1] 2004

     “My brother,” said he, “do not ride to–day / The dapple, as you’re wont; but mount the horse / Which I have chosen for thee.

   • 1996, L E Modesitt, The Order War‎^[2]:

     A Sarronnese officer whom he did not know was leading a riderless horse, a dapple.

   • 2004, D Caroline Coile, [3]

     Some well-intentioned breeders inadvertently breed two dapples together because occasionally a dapple will have so few patches of mottled coloration it appears undappled.

Translations

mottled marking

• Finnish: laikku (fi)
• Russian: пятнистая (ru) (pjatnistaja) окра́ска (ru) f (okráska)

dappled animal

• Finnish: papurikko (fi) (esp. horse); laikukas (eläin)
• Spanish: tordo (es), animal de piel moteada

Adjective

dapple (comparative more dapple, superlative most dapple)

1. Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.
   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Some dapple mists still floated along the peaks.

   • 1984, Dan Parkinson, Gunpowder Glory, page 103:

     I was on a running Morgan that could leave anything in six counties behind, and all she had was that short-hocked dapple pony.

Translations

having a spotted skin or coat

• Bulgarian: пъстър (bg) (pǎstǎr), петнист (petnist)
• Finnish: laikukas (fi)
• French: taché (fr), tacheté (fr)
• Russian: пятни́стый (ru) (pjatnístyj), of horses: в яблоках (v jáblokakh), чуба́рый (ru) (čubáryj)
• Spanish: tordo (es), moteado (es), habado (es)
• Swedish: (of horses:) apelkastad

Verb

dapple (third-person singular simple present dapples, present participle dappling, simple past and past participle dappled)

1. To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.
   • 1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 77:

     Jt ſeemes it is in faſhion vvith you to ſugar your papers vvith Carnation phraſes, and dapple your ſpeeches vvith nevv quodled vvords.

     A figurative use.

   • 2006, Ace Edmonds, Bands, Part 2‎^[4]:

     Kris awoke with a start. Sweat dappled his forehead, and he brushed it away.

Translations

to mark with spots

• Bulgarian: изпъстрям (bg) (izpǎstrjam), изпъстрям се (izpǎstrjam se)
• Russian: покрыва́ть (ru) (pokryvátʹ) пятнами (ru) (pjatnami), покрываться (ru) (pokryvatʹsja) пятнами (ru) (pjatnami), пятнить (ru) impf (pjatnitʹ), пятниться (ru) impf (pjatnitʹsja), пятнать (ru) impf (pjatnatʹ), пятнаться (ru) impf (pjatnatʹsja), запятнать (ru) pf (zapjatnatʹ), запятнаться (ru) pf (zapjatnatʹsja), испятнать (ru) pf (ispjatnatʹ), испятнаться (ru) pf (ispjatnatʹsja)
• Spanish: motear (es), salpicar (es)

Related terms

• dapple-throat

Anagrams

• appled, lapped, palped