Motley been recently thought to be one pattern with different coloured threads running through it. Motley Motley is the traditional costume of the court jester, fool, or the harlequin character in "commedia dell'arte". The harlequin wears a patchwork of red, green and blue diamonds that is still a fashion motif. The word "motley" is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as a cognate of "medley", although the unrelated "mottled" has also contributed to the meaning. The word is most commonly used as an adjective or noun, but is also seen as a verb and adverb. When used as a noun, it
Court jester hypothesis coined it. Westfall and Millar attribute the term to him (citing the 2001 paper) in a paper of their own from 2004. Michael Benton also credits Barnosky with coining the phrase. Since 2001, many researchers in evolution (such as Tracy Aze, Anthony Barnosky, Michael J. Benton, Douglas Erwin, Thomas Ezard, Sergey Gravilets, J.B.C. Jackson, Paul N. Pearson, Andy Purvis, Robert D. Westfall, and Constance I. Millar) have started to use the term "Court Jester hypothesis" to describe the view that evolution at a macro scale is driven by abiotic factors more than the biotic competition called the Red Queen hypothesis.