variegation
(vɛərɪɪˈgeɪʃən, -rɪgeɪ-)
[f. variegate v. Cf. Sp. variegacion, Pg. variega{cced}ão.]
1. The condition or quality of being variegated or varied in colour; diversity of colour or the production of this; spec. in Bot., the presence of two or more colours in the leaves, petals, or other parts of plants; also, defective or special development leading to such colouring.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 364 He..that could content himselfe..that the variegation of Birds was from their living in the Sunne. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Variegation, a garnishing with divers colours. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 64 ¶5, I happened to catch a moth of peculiar variegation. 1775 Adair Amer. Indians 3 The variegation..of colours among the human race. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 142/1 This variegation of the leaves sometimes disappears. 1861 Bentley Man. Bot. 745 Variegation in leaves must be regarded as a diseased condition of the cells of which they are composed. 1882 G. Allen in Nature XXVI. 323 When we come to consider the subject of variegation [of colours in flowers] and of reversion. |
b. With a and pl. Also, a variegated marking.
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort. 77 Plant them [tulips] in natural earth somewhat impoverish'd with very fine sand; else they will soon lose their variegations. 1725 Fam. Dict. s.v. Florist's Year (Sept.), Remembering always 'tis Nourishment is the Cause of Variegations in Plants. 1771 Phil. Trans. LXI. 48 The beautiful variegations in them [specimens of marble] may have probably been occasioned by the mineral vapours. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 78 Its colours..passing into variegations. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 471 Body brown, smooth, with white variegations. 1884 Browning Ferishtah (1885) 112 And where's the gloom now?—silver-smitten straight, One glow and variegation! |
2. The action or process of diversifying or rendering varied in character; an instance or occasion of this.
| 1668 H. More Div. Dial. lii. xxiii. 451 There being Folly and Wickedness all over the World, it is better there should be this variegation of it, then that it should be every-where in the same dress. a 1680 Glanvill Disc. Serm. & Rem. x. (1681) 376 His attributes are but the several modes and variegations of Almighty Love. 1727 Pope, etc. Art Sinking 97 For variegation, nothing is more useful than the Paranomasia, or Pun. 1775 Johnson West. Isl. Wks. 1825 IX. 157 The variegation of time by terms and vacations. 1777 ― Lett. (1788) I. 363 Do not omit painful casualties, or un⁓pleasing passages; they make the variegation of existence. 1834 H. Martineau Moral iii. 85 The diversity of production which takes place on the earth, occasioning..a perpetual variegation and augmentation of commodities. |
† b. Alternation of (one thing with another). Obs.
| 1779 Johnson L.P., Addison Wks. III. 47 His..variegation of prose and verse, however, gains upon the reader. |