espallar

14th century. From es- (“out, ex-”) +‎ palla (“straw”). Cognate with Portuguese espalhar.

• IPA^(key): /espaˈʎaɾ/

espallar (first-person singular present espallo, first-person singular preterite espallei, past participle espallado)

1. (transitive) to winnow; to remove the grasses and chaff from the hay
2. (transitive) to spread, to scatter (something on a surface)
   • c1350, Kelvin M. Parker (ed.), Historia Troyana. Santiago: Instituto Padre Sarmiento, page 147:

     Et meteu se por medeo da batalla et ya rraueoso asi cõmo (hũ) leõ brauo quando esta cõ grã fame et entrou onde estauã mays de seysçentos [omes] armados et diz o cõto que os hũus chagaua, et outros derribaua, et outros atrauesaua et espaliaua, et moytos mataua.

     And he went through the middle of the battle, and he was raging like a wild lion when he is starving, and he entered where there were more than six hundred armed men, and the tale says that he injured some of them, and he knocked down others, and others he pierced and routed, and he killed many of them

   Synonyms: ciscar, estrar

3. (transitive) to disseminate, to spread (an idea; a rumor)
   • 1697, Joan del Rio y Otero, Fiestas Minervales, page 33:

     Porque mereces que todos / Che chamen segunda Athena; / Por el o teu nome a fama / Polo mundo espalla leda

     Because you deserve to be called The Second Athens by all; because of him your name Fame happily spreads around the world

   Synonyms: difundir, propagar

4. (reflexive) to spread out

• palla

• “espaliar” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “espalia” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “espallar” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “espallar” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “espallar” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.