Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
SPECKLE
spot, speckle, dapple, patch, fleck, maculation
(noun) a small contrasting part of something; “a bald spot”; “a leopard’s spots”; “a patch of clouds”; “patches of thin ice”; “a fleck of red”
speckle, bespeckle
(verb) mark with small spots; “speckle the wall with tiny yellow spots”
stipple, speckle
(verb) produce a mottled effect; “The sunlight stippled the trees”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
speckle (countable and uncountable, plural speckles)
A small spot or speck on the skin, plumage or foliage.
(physics) The random distribution of light when it is scattered by a rough surface.
(Scotland) Kind; sort.
(cytology) A cluster of interchromatin granules in a nucleus
Verb
speckle (third-person singular simple present speckles, present participle speckling, simple past and past participle speckled)
To mark with speckles.
Source: Wiktionary
Spec"kle, n. Etym: [Dim. of speck; cf. D. spikkel.]
Definition: A little or spot in or anything, of a different substance or color from that of the thing itself. An huge great serpent, all with speckles pied. Spebser.
Spec"kle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Speckled; p. pr. & vb. n. Speckling.]
Definition: To mark with small spots of a different color from that of the rest of the surface; to variegate with spots of a different color from the ground or surface.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
3 April 2025
WHOLE
(noun) an assemblage of parts that is regarded as a single entity; “how big is that part compared to the whole?”; “the team is a unit”
Coffee Trivia
