Motley means made up of oddly assorted parts. A motley crew, a motley collection, motley assortment.
It is nearly always mildly disparaging and nearly always in the phrase motley crew. As a noun, motley is the multicoloured costume of a court jester — to wear the motley meant to play the fool, which is where the mismatched sense comes from. Note that the word is related to mote, a speck, so motley is speckled.
1adjectivemotleyMade up of oddly assorted parts.
“A motley crew of students, pensioners and farmers turned up to the meeting.”
2nounmulticolouredThe multicoloured costume of a jester.
“The jester danced before the king, dressed in motley and ringing his bells.”
motley is a quality of mismatch.
Middle English motle probably comes from Old English mot, a speck, so motley means flecked. Mote and mottled come from the same speck.
Old English
mot — speck
Anglo-Norman
motteley — parti-colored
Middle English
motle
English, today
motley
From Middle English motle, from Anglo-Norman motteley (“parti-colored”), from Old English mot (“speck”). a doublet of mote. The English word can be analysed as mottle + y.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire