Because I’m a logophile, I subscribe to a daily email from dictionary.com. Recently, the word of the day was “dapple,” defined as “[dap-uhl] – verb – to mark or become marked with spots.”
More about dapple
- Dapple, the verb, was first recorded in 1545–55.
- Dapple was probably formed from the adjective dappled, “having spots of a different shade from the background.”
- Dappled first appeared around 1350–1400 and comes from Middle English.
- Dappled probably has Scandinavian roots and is similar to Old Norse depill, meaning “spot.”
EXAMPLES OF DAPPLE
- The artist used a hairbrush to dapple paint onto the canvas, creating an abstract masterpiece.
- The sunlight dappled the leaves, casting beautiful patterns on the forest floor.
Where, I ask you, is the absolute main and obvious example of *dapple*!? As in dapple grey, as in a coat dappled with good health … as in HORSE-related!?
Interestingly, “dapple” was the word of the day on my mom’s birthday, the day on which Kestrel was featured on the blog. That pic didn’t show enough of Kestrel to show off her fabulous good-health dapples, so I offer you the above pic, which, I suggest, is the very definition of “dapple” in picture form. Most beautifully shown. 🙂
Thank you, Kestrel. You model your dapples gorgeously!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
Ha. A show and tell definition of that great word “dapple!” And what could be better than a quintessential “dappled” mustang – our pretty Kestrel! 😁
Right?! Sometimes, I wonder about those wordsmith definers … ! 😉 Shouldn’t every word be horse-centric?! 🙂
I don’t know why, but my first thought looking at Kestrel I thought of Comache. 🤔
Oh, I know. I think about him a lot, too. It’s hard for me to call the band by the current stallion’s name … I end up thinking of it as Kestrel’s band. In good news, Comanche has a grandson in the basin who looks JUST like him.
Dapple is a happy word ! Kissed by the sun 🙂
It very certainly is a happy word! And Kestrel most definitely is “kissed by the sun”! 🙂
Thanks for the information! Dapple is a good word!
Fun, right? 🙂 Dapple is a very good word. 🙂
Hopkins was a monk, but this is a beautiful, beautiful thing:
Pied Beauty
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
Oh. that IS really beautiful! I love it!
Me too. One of my all-time favorites. 🩷
I can see why. Love those put-together words … in all the ways in which they are put together!