| 释义 |
▪ I. motley, a. (adv.), n.|ˈmɒtlɪ|
Forms: 4 motteley, 4–5 mottelay, 4,6–8 motly, 5 motle(e, motele, motleye, 6–7 moatl(e)y, (7 mothly), 7–8 motely, 5– motley.
[Of obscure origin.
The early forms (with which cf. those of medley) suggest adoption of an AF. *motelé, which may possibly have been formed on the native Eng. mote n.1, speck, spot; cf. speckled, with which in some early examples motley seems nearly synonymous. Formally the word might be derived from OF. motel, early mod.F. motteau little clod, also ‘clot of congealed moisture’ (Cotgr.), dim. of mote, motte clod, but this does not seem quite satisfactory with regard to sense. Connexion with early mod.F. mattelé ‘clotted, knottie, curdled, or curd-like’ (Cotgr.) is improbable on grounds both of form and meaning.]
A. adj.
1. Diversified in colour; variegated; particoloured; chequered.
[1388Calverley Chart. (1904) 204 Pur j gowne de bloy mottelay et j chaperon de scharlete.] 1390–1Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 8 Pro xxiiij virgis de rubano motteley. 1415in Rymer Fœdera IX. 274/2 Duas Copas de Motley Velwet nigro, rubeo, & viridi cum Orfreis de Velvet rubeo. c1430Two Cookery-bks. i. 36 And ȝif þow wolt haue it Motley, take þre pottys, and make letlardys in eche, & coloure [them]..so þat þey ben dyuerse; an..caste al togederys in-to on, an stere hem..and he wol be Motley whan he ys lechyd. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 49/1 Israhel lovyd Joseph..and made for hym a motley cote. 1504–5Norwich Sacr. Roll (MS.), In factura unius panni de Motley velveto. 1587Turberv. Trag. T. 16 b, When May, with motly robes began his raigne. 1606Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. ii. Magnif. 313 He, whose count-less Heards for pasture Dis-robe (alone) mount Carmel's moatly Vesture. 1620Shelton Quix. iv. xxiii. (1652) 131 An artificiall Fountain wrought of motly Jasper and smooth Marble. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 123 All the colours being..given by the variety of Slips, except the Motley-colour which is procured by blending the Lead with Manganese. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. 36 They make the..motely colours [orig. bigarures] that are upon the Stuffs with Moulds. 1755Smollett Quix. (1803) IV. 31 Two of thom..are green, two carnation, two blue, and one motley. 1757Dyer Fleece ii. 111 Where pitch..must stain your motley flock, To mark your property. a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 159 A motley page Of black and white. 1851Layard Pop. Acc. Discov. Nineveh viii. 185 About thirty Cawals in their motley dresses of black and white.
b. esp. of a fool's dress. Hence motley fool.
1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 13, I met a foole i'th Forrest, A motley Foole. Ibid. 43 O that I were a foole, I am ambitious for a motley coat. 1603Dekker & Chettle Grissil i. (Hübsch 1893) 14 Its hard sir for this motley Ierkin to find friendship with this fine doublet. 1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. lxxviii, In motley robe to dance at masking ball. 1820Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 49 Shakspear has contrived to clothe..the same sort of character with a motley garb.
c. Path. in motley dandruff, a dandriff which produces a variegated appearance of the skin. Also (by association with ‘mottle’), of the skin in disease: Mottled in appearance.
1822Good Study Med. IV. 573 The variegated or Motley Dandriff, pityriasis versicolor. 1843R. G. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. iv. 51 In some instances the eruption was papular, or a motley appearance of the skin.
2. transf. and fig. Composed of elements of diverse or varied character:
a. of things.
1824Wotton Archit. ii. 98, I could wish such medlie and motlie Designes confined onely to the Ornament of Freezes. 1641Milton Animadv. Wks. 1851 III. 208 The motley incoherence of a patch'd missall. 1693Dryden Persius' Sat. i. 158 One would enquire from whence this motley Style Did first our Roman Purity defile. 1728Pope Dunc. i. 63 There motley images her fancy strike, Figures ill-paired, and Similies unlike. 1796E. Hamilton Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811) I. 138 Motely tales of love and murder. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. i. 14 The language of France..has left to our day some motley relics. 1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. i. iii. 25 Motley fancies blossom may For the fashion of the day.
b. of an assembly of persons.
1687T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 77 What a motly checquer'd assembly of red-coats and wastecoateers! 1748Anson's Voy. i. iii. 28 With this motly crew..Pizarro set sail. 1846Arnold Later Hist. Rome I. viii. 477 The infantry were..a motley force of Greeks, Cretans, Syrians, and natives of Pontus. 1879Lubbock Addr. Pol. & Educ. i. 2 In..Singapore, we see a motley population attracted from China, the Malay Peninsula and India.
†3. Varying in character or mood; changeable in form. Obs.
1593Donne Sat. i. 1 Away thou changeling motley humorist. 1755Young Centaur v. (1757) IV. 221 So motley a creature is man; as mutable, as God is fixed.
†4. Made of the cloth called motley. Obs.
1589Marprel. Epit. G j, He deserueth to be cased in a good moatley cloakbagg for his labor. 1615R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 130, I had Smaw gere (at tat tide) but a lether-bagge, A Motley iacket, an a slop of blew, It was my Fadders, I mun tell thee true.
5. Comb., chiefly parasynthetic, as motley coloured, motley-minded, motley-peopled, motley-speckled adjs.; also † motley-scorn (see quot.).
1799Strutt Dress & Habits II. 279 The Merchand [in the Cant. T.]..is clothed in a *motley-coloured garment.
1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. iv. 41 This is the *Motley-minded Gentleman.
1845Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 135 This..*motley-peopled capital.
1600Dekker Fortunatus C 4, Poore Vertue Why is this *Motley-scorne [sc. a cockscomb] set on thy head?
1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1114/4 Lost.. a *Motly-speckled Greyhound.
B. n.
†1. A cloth of a mixed colour; a mixture. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Prol. 271 (Lansd. MS.) A marchant was þere with a forked berde In motteley [Ellesm., Heng. motlee; Camb., Petw. motle; Corp. mottle; Harl. motteleye] and hye on hors he satte. 1394–5Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 598 In uno panno viridi cum xx uln. de motly pro garniamentis estivalibus. 14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 603/46 Polimitus, Ray or motle or medlee. 1467–8Rolls of Parlt. V. 620/1 Double Motleys, vii yerdes longe..and sengle Motleys, vi yerdes longe. 1487–8Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 135 Paide for mendyng of a vestmente of worstede Motleye, xij d. 1556Withals Dict. (1568) 34 a/1 He that maketh motley, polymitarius. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 170 His [sc. the king of Denmark's] chiefe Courtiers..were all attired in an English cloth, which they call Kentish cloth, we call Motley, but much finer then that whereof we make cloakebags.
†b. transf. (Common in Lydgate.) In pl. as the material of the flowery ‘mantle’ of the earth. Similarly, white motley, as the clothing of the hawthorn. Obs.
c1402Lydg. Compl. Bl. Knt. xi, Ther saw I eek the fresshe hawethorn In whyte motle, that so swote doth smelle. c1407― Reson & Sens. 117 Hys [sc. the earth's] mantel ys so lusty hewed..wyth motles fressh and fyne. c1450― Secrees 1378 This sesoun fflora that is of fflours quene, hire fressh motlees she tournyth now Citryne. c1515Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy Soc.) 7 The walles shallbe of hauthorne..And hanged wt whyte motly yt swete doth smell.
2. A variegated, chequered, or mixed colour; also transf. and fig. an incongruous mixture.
c1440Promp. Parv. 345/2 Motle, colowre, stromaticus. 1530Palsgr. 246/2 Motley[,] colour, biguarrure. 1552Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI, c. 6 §23 Clothes..of anye other color or colors then..watchett shepes color lyon color motteley or tren [v.r. Iren] grey. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 366 By their joint perverting the Holy Bible sprang up this motly of Blasphemous Dotages. 1864D. G. Mitchell Wet Days at Edgewood (1884) 72 Interlacing the pages into a motley of patchwork. 1889Amer. Nat. May 494 A motley of white and gray on the head, neck, shoulders, and back.
Comb.1611Cotgr., Bigarrément, diuersly, of sundrie colours, motley-like.
3. A parti-coloured dress which was the recognized attire of a professional fool or jester, freq. in phr. to wear motley; hence, allusively, foolery, nonsense. a piece of motley, a fool. Obs. exc. Hist.
1600Shakes. A.Y.L. ii. vii. 34 A worthy foole: Motley's the onely weare. a1619Fletcher Wit without M. iii. iv, Never hope after I cast you off, you men of Motley. 1623–34Fletcher & Mass. Lover's Progr. i. i, How have you work'd This piece of motley to your ends? a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 225 Their poring upon black and white too subt'ly Has turn'd the Insides of their Brains to motly. 1842H. Rogers Ess. (1874) I. i. 21 So exuberant is Fuller's wit, that..his very wisdom wears motley.
b. A fool, jester.
c1600Shakes. Sonn. cx, I haue gone here and there And made my selfe a motley to the view. 1616Haughton Englishm. for my Money F 3 b, Will not this monsieur Motley take his answer? 1873–4Dixon Two Queens III. xiv. viii. 113 Wolsey, in his gown and band, beat all the motleys with their caps and bells.
▪ II. motley, v.|ˈmɒtlɪ|
[f. motley n.]
trans. To make motley or parti-coloured in hue; to diversify in character; to mix incongruously. Hence ˈmotleyed ppl. a.
1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) Introd. 3 Poetrye Enbelshyd wyth colours of rethoryk So plenteuously that fully it lyk In may was neuere no medews sene Motleyed wt flours on hys verdure grene. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. i. Eden 89 With thousand Dies he motleys all the Meades. c1610F. Davison Ps. xxiii, Motlied [so MS. Rawl. Poet. 61 (1626); edd. mottled] with Springs flowry painting. 1630Drayton Muses' Elys. vi. 57 The motlied Meadowes then,..Shute vp their spicy sweets. 1742Collins Oriental Ecl. iii. 17 Gay-motley'd pinks and sweet jonquils she chose. 1798A. P. Tour in Wales 35 (MS.) They were a motleyed throng of quadrupeds and the human species. 1830Moir in Blackw. Mag. XXVII. 341 Some ruins motleyed with the weeds That love the salt-breeze. |