piebald, a. (n.)
(ˈpaɪbɔːld)
Forms: 6 pibald, pibauld, 6–7 py(-)bald, 6– pie(-)bald, 7 pye(-)bald, pyedball, 7–8 pye-balled (-ball'd), 8– pye(-)ball.
[f. pie n.1 + bald a. 5: cf. ball n.3]
A. adj. Of two different colours, esp. white and black or other dark colour (like the plumage of a magpie), usually arranged in more or less irregular patches; pied: usually of animals, esp. horses. Loosely used of other colours (cf. skewbald) or of three or more colours; parti-coloured.
| 1594 Barnfield Aff. Sheph. i. xxviii, I haue a pie-bald Curre to hunt the Hare. 1610 Markham Masterp. i. x. 26 His colour is either a milke white, a yellow dun, a kiteglewd or a pyedball. 1622 Malynes Anc. Law-Merch. 328 Signified by the Pybald horse whereon hee was mounted. 1626 Faithful Friends i. i, Millions..lavished in excessive sports, And piebald pageantry. 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1135/4 A white Gelding..having pye-bald marks on both flanks of bluish colour. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 20 [At Naples]. Yesterday..shewed me what I knew not had existed—a skew-ball or pyeballed ass. 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 97 There are Negroes, (Albinoes) born white, some are party coloured or pie-bald. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 542 Individuals thus motley coloured are commonly called piebald negroes, or are said to have piebald skins. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xi. (1852) 233 Dusky woods, piebald with snow. 1871 ― Desc. Man II. xvi. 230 Piebald birds..for instance, the black-necked swan, certain terns, and the common magpie. |
b. fig. Composed of parts or elements of dissimilar or incongruous kinds; of mixed characters or qualities (always in bad sense); motley, mongrel.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1590) 13 Leaue thrumming thy Pibauld Iestes with Scripture. 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 96 A Babylonish Dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect. It was a Parti-colour'd Dress Of patch'd and Pye-ball'd Languages. 1763–5 Churchill Candidate 716 Shall hurl his piebald Latin at thy head. 1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 58 note, To produce such a pyebald style of composition. 1878 Bayne Purit. Rev. ii. 27 In the piebald character of the man. |
B. n. A piebald animal,
esp. a horse.
b. fig. A person or thing of mixed character, a ‘mongrel’.
| 1765 Foote Commissary ii. Wks. 1799 II. 26 The right honourable Peer..calls me..Plebeian, and says if we have any children, they will turn out very little better than pye⁓balls. 1842 Tennyson Walking to Mail 104 As quaint a four-in-hand As you shall see—three pyebalds and a roan. 1845 Ford Handbk. Spain i. 53 Strabo..had an idea that Spanish piebalds..changed colour if taken out of Spain. |
Hence
ˈpiebalding, becoming piebald, development of patches of different colours;
ˈpiebaldism,
ˈpiebaldness, the quality of being piebald;
ˈpiebaldly adv., in a piebald manner, with patches of different colours.
| 1886 Romanes in Life & Lett. (1896) III. 175 The young ones show no signs of *piebalding. |
| 1881 Standard 8 Sept. 5/3 Domestication tends to produce irregular colour, or what is commonly called *piebaldism. |
| 1613 Campion Relat. Entertainm. Ld. Knowles, A strawn hat, *piebaldly drest with flowers. |
| 1893 Sat. Rev. 8 Apr. 375/2 Glaring *piebaldness. 1899 E. Phillpotts Human Boy 120 The piebaldness of the rat was the great feature. |