merle

merle (MURL) - n., the common or Eurasian blackbird (Turdus merula). adj., (of a dog) having a coat pattern of bluish or reddish grey with splotches of, respectively, black or red-brown. n., a dog with a merle coat.


So either this:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

or this:


Thanks, WikiMedia!

The two senses are actually unrelated -- the bird is from Middle English merule, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French, from Latin merula, blackbird, from PIE root *h₂mes-, black/blackbird (which through Germanic pathways resulted in ouzel, another name for the same bird), while the coloration popped up in 1905 without any hint of its origin.

---L.