ppl. a. Now dial. Also 6 sprekled. [Cf. prec. and G. (obs. or dial.) gespreckelt (also sprecklicht, -lig, etc.), Da. spraglet, MSw. spräklott, Norw. spreklutt, Icel. spreklóttr.] Speckled.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xii. 8. As a spreckled byrde, a byrde of dyuerse coloures. Ibid., Zech. i. 8. Behynde him were there reade, spreckled and whyte horses.
1786. Burns, To Mount. Daisy, ii. The bonie Lark,… Wi’s spreckl’d breast.
1825–. in dial. glossaries (N. Cy., Yks., Lancs., Linc., E. Ang., Nhp., Warw.).
1833. Wauldby Farm Rep., 109, in Husb. (L.U.K.), III. Three bushels of the spreckled or partridge peas.
1850. J. Struthers, Poet. Wks., I. p. cxxiv. The spreckled daisy and the pale primrose.
a. 1867. Mrs. E. Smith. Mem. Highl. Lady, x. (1898), 177. He was called the Spreckled Laird on account of being marked with the smallpox.
