tout = "to boast (about)"

[Herb Stahlke]

Merriam-Webster on line gives as the fourth meaning of "tout"

 to make much of : promote, talk up <touted as the summer's
blockbuster movie> <the college's much touted women's studies program>

OED has

  b. trans.    (a) To importune (a person) in a touting manner;    (b)
to solicit custom for (a thing), to try to sell; also (U.S.) in
extended sense, to recommend.

with the example

1978 Detroit Free Press 2 Apr. 6E/1 Any team that touts Jerry
Augustine as the ace of its staff is in serious trouble.

Herb

On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 9:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      tout = "to boast (about)"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> NPR  this evening:
>
> "Although Specter has been in the Senate since 1981 and can tout the
> endorsement of Obama and Gov. Ed Rendell, nearly half of Democrats are
> unconvinced."
>
> Proof?:
> http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/09/03/specter-rivals-vie-unseat-veteran-senator/
>
> The Googlits go back at least to 2007.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "There You Go Again...Using Reason on the Planet of the Duck-Billed
> Platypus"
>
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