α. Middle English pikelyd, Middle English pikelyde, Middle English pykeled, 1600s–1700s pickled.
β. 1500s pecled, 1500s peculd, 1600s peackled, 1600s– peckled, 1700s–1800s pecklt.
peckledadj.
/ˈpɛkld/, U.S. /ˈpɛk(ə)ld/ Now chiefly British regional.
Spotted, speckled, variegated; mottled; blemished.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > variegation > [adjective]
fawa700
medleyc1350
freckledc1380
motleyc1380
pied1382
specked1382
vary1382
partyc1385
parted1393
peckleda1400
polymitec1425
sere-colouredc1425
vairc1425
discoloured?1440
motleyed1447
varying1488
sheld1507
fleckered1508
piet1508
mellay1515
particoloured1530
pickled1552
varied1578
mingled1580
partly coloured1582
chequered1592
medley-coloured1593
mingle-coloured1593
piebald1594
feathered1610
changeable1612
particolour1612
enamelled1613
variousa1618
pie-coloured1619
jaspered1620
gangean1623
versicolour1628
patchwork1634
damasked1648
variously-coloureda1660
variegateda1661
agated1665
varicoloured1665
damaska1674
various-coloureda1711
pieted1721
versicoloured1721
diversicoloured1756
mosaic1776
harlequin1779
spanged1788
calico1807
piety1811
varied-coloured1811
discolorate1826
heterochromous1842
jaspé1851
discolor1859
discolorous1860
jasperoid1876
damascened1879
heterochromatic1895
variotinted1903
batik1914
varihued1921
rumbled1930
damasky1931
pepper-and-salt1940
partihued1959
the world > matter > colour > variegation > spot of colour > [adjective] > speckling > speckled
freckledc1380
specked1382
specky1382
splecked1382
peckleda1400
speckleda1400
pleckedc1410
frecknyc1440
sparkled1480
spurtled1513
sprittleda1522
spreckled1535
speckle1536
pickled1552
spink1558
bespecked1565
spanged1582
spinked1588
spangled1590
dotted1601
bespeckled1607
peppery1610
peppered1694
fleckled1700
spankled1703
speckly1705
pounced1727
punctulateda1728
dotty1795
punctulate1845
naevose1847
peckly1859
polka-dotted1872
stippled1876
oatmeal1880
guttulate1887
naevous1890
stipply1892
thrush-breast1896
skittery1955
α.
β. 1552–3 Inventory Church Goods in Ann. Diocese Lichfield (1863) IV. 20 Itm. iiij albes, on cope of saten bruges, & on of peculd silke.1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iii. f. 138 You must looke beside, that his tongue be not blacke, nor pecled.1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Gelinote de bois, the pied, or peckled Pheasant, or wood Henne.1615 W. Lawson Country Housewifes Garden (1618) 3 When Summer cloathes your borders with green and peckled colours.1691 T. Heyrick Misc. Poems 82 Kill him, cries One, he stole my Peckled Hen, And got my fatted Capons out o'th' Pen.1763 ‘T. Bobbin’ Toy-shop (new ed.) To Rdr. p. ix The pecklt jump [coat].1858 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 19 ii. 386 The ‘peckled-faced’ ones are rejected as breeding sheep.1877 E. Leigh Gloss. Words Dial. Cheshire 152 ‘A peckled poot’, a speckled chicken.1985 K. Howarth Sounds Gradely Peckled, spotted or freckled.1993 E. A. Proulx Shipping News v. 45 Bunny at the landwash casting peckled stones.1996 C. I. Macafee Conc. Ulster Dict. Peckled, of cement or plaster pock-marked by the effect of rain when still wet.a1400 Gloss. W. de Bibbesworth (Paris) 72 Mes pur arrendre plus avant I i a geline garelee [glossed] pikelyde [v.r. spekkyd].
c1450 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 610/23 Dicitur gallina lirida scon, pykeled hen show.
?a1500 in G. Henslow Med. Wks. 14th Cent. (1899) 13 Ȝef a man be y-smyte with his owyn bloud þat hit be y-sprad ouer al his body, so þat hit by-comyþ oþer-while pikelyd and oþer-whyle hit brekyþ out on hym verilyche, take selydonye.
1620 W. Lawson in J. Dennys Secrets of Angling (new ed.) ii. sig. C5 Wings of a feather of a Mallart, Teel, or peckled [1652 pickled] hen wing.
1772 J. Entick New Spelling Dict. (new ed.) 260/1 Pickled, a., spotted, varied with spots.
Derivatives
ΚΠ
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Griveleure, pecklednesse, or specklednesse.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.a1400