| 释义 |
dapple-grey, a. (n.)|ˈdæp(ə)lgreɪ|
Forms: 4–5 dappel-, -ul(l-, -il(l-, 6–7 daple-, 5– dapple-grey, -gray.
[See dapple n., a., v. and grey.
Since dapple-grey occurs nearly two centuries before dapple itself is exemplified in any grammatical capacity (the only form known to be of equal age being the ppl. adj. dappled), it is difficult to conjecture whence or how the compound was formed. In such combinations, the first element is usually a n.: e.g. in apple-grey, iron-grey, sky-blue, snow-white, etc.; but it is difficult to attach any analogous meaning to ‘spot-grey’, if we suppose dapple here to be the n. The Germanic languages generally have a combination meaning ‘apple-grey’: viz. ON. apalgrár ‘dapple-grey, i.e. apple-grey, having the streaky colour of an apple’ (Vigfusson), Sw. apel-grå, Norw. apel-graa, Da. abildgraa, pied, piebald; OHG. aphelgrâ ‘glaucus’ (Grimm), MHG. apfelgrâ, Ger. apfelgrau ‘dapple-grey’ (Flügel), ‘applied to the apple-round spots which show themselves on grey horses’ (Grimm), Du. appel-graauw ‘dapple-grey’. So F. pommelé (f. pomme apple) marked with roundish spots (of any colour), gris-pommelé grey dappled with darker spots, dapple-grey, pomely grey in Chaucer, C.T. Prol. 616; with which cf. Russ. yablochnyĭ dappled, f. yabloko apple; all said esp. of the coats of horses. It is not easy to believe that ‘dapple-grey’ which renders these words, has no connexion with ‘apple-grey’, their actual translation; the explanation may be that dapple-grey was a mixture of dappled spotted, taken as the sense-equivalent of F. pommelé, with apple-grey the formal representative of Norse apal-grâ-, and its Teutonic equivalents. This would account at once for the difficulty in analysing dapple- in this combination, and for its presence here before its appearance as an independent word.]
Grey variegated with rounded spots or patches of a darker shade: said of horses.
c1386Chaucer Sir Thopas 173 His steede was al dappull gray [v. rr. dappel- (3 MSS.), dapull, dapil-, dapple-grey]. 14..T. of Erceldoune i. 41 Hir palfraye was a dappill graye [v. rr. Cott. dappyll, Lansd. daply, Cambr. dappull gray]. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 116 The bay, the sorrell, the dunne, the daple gray. 1599T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 72 How they color change..Then to an yron, then to a dapple gray. 1664Evelyn Sylva (1679) 29, I read..That an handful or two of small Oak buttons, mingled with Oats, given to Horses which are black of colour, will in few days eating alter it to a fine Dapple-grey. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 154/2 Daple-Gray is a light Gray spotted, or shaded with a deeper Gray. 1722Lond. Gaz. No. 6052/2 The other upon a Dapple-grey Horse. 1805Scott Last Minstr. i. xxiv, O swiftly can speed my dapple-grey steed.
transf.1639Mayne City Match v. v. in Hazl. Dodsley XIII. 307 She has three Children living; one dapple-grey, Half Moor, half English.
b. absol. A horse of this colour.
1639Drummond of Hawthornden Challenge of Knights Err. Wks. (1711) 232 Christianus..mounted on a dapple gray, had his armour sky-coloured. |