motley

From Middle English motle, from Anglo-Norman motteley (“parti-colored”), from Old English mot (“speck”). Doublet of mote. The English word can be analysed as mottle +‎ -y.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɒtli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑtli/
• Hyphenation: mot‧ley

motley (comparative more motley or motlier or motleyer, superlative most motley or motliest or motleyest)

1. Comprising greatly varied elements, to the point of incongruity.

   Synonyms: heterogeneous, diverse, manifold; see also Thesaurus:heterogeneous

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii], lines 906–907:

     I met a fool i' th' forest, / A motley' fool.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

   • 2023 September 24, HarryBlank, “Working Wonders”, in SCP Foundation‎^[1], archived from the original on 25 May 2024:

     "One of them can see you, and one of them can see an empty hallway." Reynders narrowed her bleary eyes — she wasn't wearing her glasses, for some reason — as though momentarily uncertain which sight she was seeing. She apparently decided in favour of their motley group. "I'm the one who can see you. The one who can see you can talk to you. The one who can't talk to you can see you too, sometimes, but she doesn't want to because she knows you're not there. Where she is."

2. Having many colours; variegated.

   Synonyms: colorful, prismatic, variegated; see also Thesaurus:multicolored

• motley crew
• motley fool
• motley iron
• motleyness

• mottled (adj)

motley (plural motleys)

1. An incongruous mixture.
2. A jester's multicoloured clothes.
3. (by extension) A jester; a fool.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 198, column 2, line 71:

     Wil you be married, Motley?

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 110”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:

     Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there, / And made myself a motley to the view, […]

• etymol.