Dictionary Definition
brindle adj : having a gray or brown streak or a
pattern or a patchy coloring; used especially of the patterned fur
of cats [syn: brindled,
brinded, tabby]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
- A streaky colouration in animals
Adjective
- Having such a colouration; brindled
Synonyms
- tabby (in cats)
Extensive Definition
- ''This article concerns animal color. For the village in England, see Brindle, Lancashire.
Brindle is a coat
coloring pattern in animals, particularly dogs, cats, cattle, and, rarely, horses. It is sometimes described
as "tiger striped", although the brindle pattern is more subtle
than that of a tiger's
coat. The streaks of color are usually darker than the base coat,
which is often tawny or grayish, although very dark markings can be
seen on a coat that is only slightly lighter.
The brindle pattern may also take the place of
tan in tricolor coats of some dog breeds (such as Basenjis). This
coloration looks very similar to tricolor, and can only be
distinguished at close range. Dogs of this color are often
described as "trindle". It can also occur in combination with blue
merle in the points, or as a brindle merle, in breeds such as
the Cardigan
Welsh Corgi, though the latter is not acceptable in the show
ring.
In horses, brindle coloring is extremely rare and
may be either caused by or somehow linked to chimerism, resulting in an
animal with two sets of DNA, with the brindle
pattern being an expression of two different sets of equine
coat color genes in one horse.
Poetry
The word brindle comes from brindled, originally brinded, from an old Scandinavian word. See Wiktionary. The concept occurs in the opening of 'Pied Beauty' (1877) by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poem about dappled, streaky, subtly-varied Nature, where he compares 'skies of couple-colour' to a 'brinded cow'.The opening of Act Four, Scene One of William
Shakespeare's Macbeth is:
- "Thrice the brindled cat hath mewed," ...
See also
References
External links
brindle in Swedish: Brindle