"Of the apple"

Apples are rarely all red. Usually they're speckled, like the one in the picture. In other words, they're "dappled," a word which also means speckled or spotted -- but literally means "apple-like" or "of the apple" -- or d'appled like an apple. In French, the word for dappled is pommelé, literally "appled."

Gray horses with white flecks in their coat are called dapple grays for that reason. In German, the term is apfelgrau (apple-gray).

All of which reminds me of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) called "Pied Beauty":

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;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

And, by the way, the word "pied" is derived from "magpie," a black-and-white bird, so it means parti-colored. The magpie is also known for collecting random objects and secreting them. This may be the origin of the word "pie" (the food item) because originally pies contained a combination of fillings whereas pastries contained single fillings. 

Wherefore, if you put dappled and pied together, you get apple pie. With birds in it.

Comments

[mojo]

Magpies are also known for being ferocious nest-raiders, but that rarely comes up.

[gail]

Also you can practice divination by magpie:
1 is for sorrow
2 is for joy
3 for a girl
4 for a boy
5 for silver
6 for gold
7 for a secret not to be told.

[Ana]

I have an apple pie in the freezer. Purchased in a moment of apple pie weakness. The plan was for us to eat it for dinner one night but it was too much trouble to put it in the oven.

[gail]

Could you just put a stick in one end and lick it?

[Tracey]

I want some dappled pie. Sans birds.