Brewer's: Dapple

The name of Sancho Panza's donkey in Cervantes' romance of Don Quixote. Bailey derives dapple from the Teutonic dapper (streaked or spotted like a pippin). A dapple-grey horse is one of a light grey shaded with a deeper hue; a dapple-bay is a light bay spotted with bay of a deeper colour. (Icelandic, depill, a spot.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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