etaler

Updated: May 20, 2025

N.E. This is, perhaps, as old as Philip and Mary. TO SPREAD ONE'S SELF is defined by Mr. Bartlett "to exert one's self." It means rather to exert one's self ostentatiously. It is a capital metaphor, derived, we fancy, from the turkey-cock or peacock, like the Italian pavoneggiarsi. We find in the Tatler "spreading her graces in assemblies." This last, however, may be a Gallicism, from etaler.

Various - The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 25, November, 1859