The adjective ποικιλος (poikilos) means variegated or many-colored, and stems from the same Proto-Indo-European root "peyk-", to cut or hew, or stitch or embroider, as the Latin pingo and pictus, and thus the English words picture, pigment, paint, and so on.

Our adjective originally denoted spotted or many-colored woven artifacts, but then went on to describe anything intricate, from cunningly crafted metal work to elaborate songs to complicated oracles. Inevitably, it also came to denote complicated science or abstruse knowledge, and could thus describe artful or multi-talented people (such as Prometheus, who gave fire to mankind, and Odysseus, the proverbial student of the ways of man; Od.1.3).

Our adjective is used 10 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, and from it derives: