maculation

English

maculation (plural maculations)

(obsolete) The act of spotting; a spot; a blemish.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
  I speak not ‘be thou true,’ as fearing thee,
  For I will throw my glove to Death himself,
  That there’s no maculation in thy heart:
- 1891, Ambrose Bierce, “A Holy Terror” in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, San Francisco: E. L. G. Steele, p. 218,^[1]
  He could make out a mottled pattern on the hollow cheeks—the maculations of decay.
(zoology, botany, chiefly uncountable) A pattern of spots.
- 1975, William H. Howe, editor, The Butterflies of North America‎^[2], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 217:
  Females [of the species Speyeria nokomis] are cream above with heavy black maculation accompanied by much dark suffusion.
- 1990, Mason E. Hale, A Synopsis of the Lichen Genus Xanthoparmelia (Vainio) Hale (Ascomycotina, Parmeliaceae), Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 195,^[3]
  [This lichen] species […] is recognized by […] more or less distinct maculation on the upper surface, and pale brown lower surface.