stipple

Probably from Dutch stippel (“small dot”), originally applied to the dots themselves and later to the technique.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɪpəl/

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stipple (countable and uncountable, plural stipples)

1. (painting) The use of small dots that give the appearance of shading; the dots thus used.
   • 1877, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, →OCLC, page 30, lines 1–3:

     Glory be to God for dappled things— / For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; / For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim: […]

stipple (third-person singular simple present stipples, present participle stippling, simple past and past participle stippled)

1. (transitive) To use small dots to give the appearance of shading to.
   • 1760, Oliver Goldsmith, “Letter XLVII. From Lien Chi Altangi, to ***** merchant in Amsterdam.”, in The Citizen of the World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, […], volume I, London: […] [F]or the author; and sold by J. Newbery and W. Bristow, […]; J. Leake and W. Frederick, […]; B. Collins, […]; and A. M. Smart and Co. […], published 1762, →OCLC, page 209:

     Don’t you think, Major Vampyre, that eye-brow ſtippled very prettily?

   • 1851, John Ruskin, Pre-Raphaelitism‎^[1], New York: John Wiley, page 50:

     The worst drawings that have ever come from [ Turner’s] hands are some of this second period, on which he has spent much time and laborious thought; drawings filled with incident from one side to the other, with skies stippled into morbid blue, and warm lights set against them in violent contrast […]

   • 1922, T. E. Lawrence, chapter 41, in Seven Pillars of Wisdom‎^[2]:

     There were no footmarks on the ground, for each wind swept like a great brush over the sand surface, stippling the traces of the last travellers till the surface was again a pattern of innumerable tiny virgin waves.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 10, in Babbitt‎^[3]:

     Outside the car window was a glaze of darkness stippled with the gold of infrequent mysterious lights.

   • 1966 October 14, “Charisma, Calluses and Cash”, in Time:

     The biennial profusion of campaign billboards and posters stipples the land that Lady Bird wants to beautify and Lyndon yearns to own.

   • 1988, Edmund White, chapter 5, in The Beautiful Room is Empty, New York: Vintage International, published 1994:

     Although he was clean-shaven, black Benday dots traced the narrow pathway of his thin mustache and the stippled edge of his jaw.

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Stipple”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume IX, Part 1 (Si–St), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 975, column 1.

• Tipples, tipples