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speckig

greasy, grimy (from handling); shiny with grease

adjective SHPEK-ikh Rare

Usage Note

speckig describes surfaces — collars, book covers, seat leather — made shiny and greasy by prolonged handling. Ein speckiger Kragen looks unclean. The connection to Speck (bacon fat) is in the greasy sheen it describes.

Examples

"Der speckige Buchrücken zeigte, wie oft das Buch gelesen worden war."

Natural Translation

The greasy spine showed how often the book had been read.

Literal Translation

The greasy book-spine showed how often the book had been read.

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