An undercoat is the layer of paint that goes on before the finish. Apply an undercoat, two undercoats, an undercoat of white.
It builds the colour and gives the topcoat something to hold, and skipping it is why cheap paintwork looks patchy. On a dog, the undercoat is the soft insulating layer under the guard hairs, and it is what comes out in handfuls in spring.
1nounundercoatThe layer of paint that goes on before the finish.
“Put on an undercoat before the white gloss, or the dark wood will show through.”
undercoat is a layer.
Middle English
cote
English
coat
English, today
undercoat
Built from
From under- + coat. coat comes from Middle English cote. From Middle English cote, coate, cotte, from Old French cote, cotte (“outer garment with sleeves”), from Latin cotta (“undercoat, tunic”), from Proto-Germanic kuttô, kuttǭ (“cowl, woolen cloth, coat”), from Proto-Indo-European gʷewd-, gud- (“woolen clothes”). Cognate with Old High German kozza, kozzo (“woolen coat”) (German Kotze (“coarse woolen blanket; woolen cape”)), Middle Low German kot (“coat”), Middle Dutch cote (“coat”), Ancient Greek βεῦδος (“woman's attire”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA