Splays

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To spread or extend something outward or apart widely ; to place limbs or parts away from the main body or center in a wide stance
2. The act of expanding something so it lies open or flat across a surface ; to arrange arms, legs, or other body parts at an angle from the torso
3. Describes the action of stretching or spreading out widely or unevenly ; describes limbs or objects arranged so they extend outward from a central point

Etymology: Anyone who has spread their fingers wide has, in a sense, displayed them. "Splays" is the third-person form of "splay," and the verb grew out of "display." Middle English had a word "displaien" meaning "to display," and over time its first syllable was clipped off, leaving "splaien" (later "splayen"), meaning to unfurl a flag or spread something out. The sense of opening wide is what stuck, and the word's meaning moved steadily away from "show" toward "spread." The word then picked up a second, unrelated life. "Splay" also developed from a different Middle English verb, "splaien" in the sense of cutting open or killing an animal, which is a variant of "spaien," meaning to spay. Because the two words merged in form, the sense of splitting open and spreading apart became tangled up with the older "display" sense, and the modern verb reflects both lines of descent.

Synonyms: spreads, fans, extends

Antonyms: closes, folds