piebald

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Spotted or blotched, especially in black and white.

   "Well, isn't that just like a girl. All this round you, and you only see a bit of dust. It'll brush off." He patted ineffectually at his piebald shirt.

2. 2
   adj

   Of mixed character, heterogeneous.

   And at the present day, the wanton introduction of scientific terms from the Greek and Latin, and of phrases from the French, threatens to render our tongue still more piebald, heterogeneous and unwieldy.

From pie (“magpie”) + bald (“having white patches or blazes”). Compare typologically Polish srokaty < sroka.

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