Meaning

noun a small contrasting part of something

verb colour with streaks or blotches of different shades

originUncertain. The adjective is first attested circa 1550 though the first element is already attested in dapple-grey as early as 1386, in Middle English, and later as dappled circa 1400; the OED suggests either: * a back-formation from dapple-grey, itself a variant of apple-grey, compare possible cognates all said of horses: Old Norse apalgrár (whence Norwegian abildgrå and Swedish apel-grå), German…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0