spotty

Etymology

It is formed from English spot + -y,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} first as inherited from Middle English spotti, also spote.^[7][3][8] The OED compares the earlier spotted.^[2] The noun spot is of uncertain origin: Etymonline takes it as probably partly from a variant of Old English splott (“spot, blot, patch of land”) and partly from or related to Middle Dutch spotte (“spot, speck”),^[3] and the OED lists cognates such as North Frisian spote, Old Norse spotti (“small piece”) and Norwegian Nynorsk spott (“speck, piece of ground”), noting that some of these words may have been borrowed from one another.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Full of spots or marked with spots; spotted: 1340, in the Ayenbite.^[2][3] The Middle English Dictionary has it of things speckled or dappled, of blotchy skin, of a dirty mirror and of a diseased leaf, and also figuratively.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From before 1425 the word was used figuratively for morally stained or defiled, a sense now obsolete.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "full of spots; maculated" and quoted Milton's "spotty globe" of the moon.^[9] In 1620 it was first used of skin with blemishes or pimples, and later especially of the acne of the young.^[2] The idea of something occurring in spots or patches (1796) led to the sense "lacking coherence or unity", first of painting (1798, Etymonline 1812) and then of writing (1843),^[2][3] and then to the general sense "uneven, patchy, sporadic" (1881), originally and chiefly American;^[2] Etymonline dates this last sense to 1932.^[3] In dialect, in East Anglia, Kent, Surrey and Somerset, a crop was spotty when it was uneven over the field, and in Cheshire a spotty was a large spotted marble.^[10] In Scots a spotty was a will-o'-the-wisp (1833–1901), and in New Zealand it is a small spotted wrasse (1872).^[2] Australian slang used the adjective for cheerful in 1871, and later slang for inferior.^[11]

Timeline

• 1340 – marked with spots, spotted.^[2][3]
• before 1425 – morally stained, defiled (obsolete by 1895).^[2]
• 1620 – having blemishes or pimples on the skin.^[2]
• 1796 – occurring in spots or patches.^[2]
• 1798 – of a painting, lacking visual harmony.^[2]
• 1833 – Scottish noun, a will-o'-the-wisp (obsolete by 1901).^[2]
• 1843 – of writing, lacking unity; patchy in quality.^[2]
• 1871 – Australian slang, cheerful.^[11]
• 1872 – noun, a spotted New Zealand wrasse.^[2]
• 1881 – uneven, patchy, sporadic, originally American.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Marked with spots; spotted.^[5][12][2]
2. Having pimples or blemishes on the skin: a spotty teenager.^[12][2][4]
3. Not uniform or consistent; uneven, patchy or sporadic: The phone signal is spotty in the hills.^[12][5][2]
4. (obsolete, before 1425–1895) Morally stained; defiled.^[5][2]

Noun

1. A small spotted wrasse of New Zealand coastal waters.^[2]

Word family

• spottily
• spottiness

Related words

• spot
• spotted

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins