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pepper-and-salt

pepper-and-salt

7.0
A cloth woven with light and dark threads to make a speckled look
  • noun
  • /ˈpɛpər ənd sɔlt/
translation icon : tela jaspeada
  • The cozy blanket was woven with a pepper-and-salt pattern, adding a touch of elegance to the room.

Examples

  • Pepper and salt

    Blog text (20)
  • In the prep school, where I was for five years out of my twelve, we all wore short trousers: grey shorts with blazers in the summer, and in the winter those pepper-and-salt tweed suits with short trousers.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • He wore a stylish jacket made of pepper-and-salt fabric that caught everyone's attention.

  • She chose a pepper-and-salt cloth for the sofa, giving it a modern yet classic look.

How Grey

white-haired
12 1.7
grizzled
11 6.7
pepper-and-salt
7.0
dark-haired
20 1.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

pepper-and-salt = pepper + salt (semi-transparent) = pepper + salt

The fabric's appearance is metaphorically described as a mix of dark and light specks like pepper and salt; the metaphor is clear but slightly idiomatic for learners.

Etymology

Pepper-and-salt comes from the simple image of pepper and salt grains mixed together, like tiny black and white dots. So a pepper-and-salt fabric is one with light and dark threads that give it a 'speckled' look.