spread

[keitra]

What does 'She expected a spread soon in House & Gardens.'?

[Quizmonster]

'House and Garden' is presumably the name of a magazine and, in magazine/printing situations, a 'spread' is a long article - usually on two facing pages - with pictures and so on. (In general terms, to spread means to expand or extend over a wide area.)

[paulz]

To add to Quizzy's answer, I'm not disagreeing! [please correct me if I'm wrong QM,] but I think the term started with the newspaper industry? The middle page [which could be laid flat - no folds] could have photos/words printed right across the middle 'margin' [known as the gutter] and was called a centre page spread or splash

[Quizmonster]

I'm not disagreeing with you either, Paul, certainly re the origin possibly lying with newspapers. The OED definition - which I've now looked up - refers to both papers and periodicals/magazines.

I'm not sure, though, about its referring specifically to the centre pages, even in the early days. In fact, one of the illustrative quotes in the OED mentions "a four-page spread", which presumably wouldn't work according to your description.

There has, though - as you say - since the 1940s at least, been something specifically referred to as a "centre spread". 'Spread' itself has meant an extended article since almost a century earlier than that. All-in-all, in modern usage, it doesn't seem to matter much whereabouts in the publication it appears. Cheers

[paulz]

As ever QM you're right [mind you the staff paper I worked on only had a maximum of 16 pages, once a month - so we were hardly at the top end of the scale!] Cheers too!