SPICK-AND-SPAN

[Dr. Goodword]

• spick-and-span •

Pronunciation: spik-en-spæn • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Brand new. 2. Absolutely clean, spotless.

Notes: Since Americans see the household cleaning products sold under the brand name 'Spic and Span' more often than the actual phrase, the spelling spic-and-span is generally accepted as a legitimate alternative to the original spick-and-span. As always, we prefer the original.

In Play: In most of the English-speaking world, today's Good Word still carries the meaning of newness: "When you say that you have a 'new' car, do you mean a new used car or a spick-and-span car?" This is a variant of the ancient epithet span-new "brand new", already in use in the 13th century. Today's Good Word more often, of course, refers to cleanliness: "When I get home from work today, I want to find your room not just tidy but spick-and-span!"

Word History: Today's complex word is, believe it or not, a shortening of an earlier phrase, spick-and-span new. Spick is a variant of spike while span once meant "chip". The term comes from the ship-building trade at a time when ships were built of wood. A ship was 'spike and chip' new if you could still find the occasional unused spike and left-over chips lying around. Spanking new is apparently a variant of span new that came along after the meaning of span changed radically to what it is today. (In a world flooded with dirty words, we especially thank Henry F. Koch for suggesting such an exceptionally clean one for today's Good Word.)

[engineer27]

span once meant "chip".

Is that why the Brits insist on calling a hammer a "Spanner"?

[bnjtokyo]

Dear Engineer27,

A "spanner" is not a hammer. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

"SPANNER (BrE) (also WRENCH . . .) a metal tool with a specially shaped end for holding and turning nuts and bolts . . . . "

Why they call that tool a spanner, I have no idea, but then I have no idea why the Americans call it a "wrench" either.

Cheers,

[Perry]

Why they call that tool a spanner, I have no idea

Now you do.

span (v.)
O.E. spannen "to clasp, fasten, stretch, span," from P.Gmc. *spanwanan (cf. O.N. spenna, O.Fris. spanna, M.Du. spannen, O.H.G. spannan, Ger. spannen), from PIE base *(s)pen- "to draw, stretch, spin" (cf. L. pendere "to hang, to cause to hang," pondus "weight" (the weight of a thing measured by how much it stretches a cord), pensare "to weigh, consider;" Gk. ponein "to toil;" Lith. spendziu "lay a snare;" O.C.S. peti "stretch, strain," pato "fetter," pina "I span;" O.E. spinnan "to spin;" for other cognates, see spin). The meaning "to encircle with the hand(s)" is from 1781; in the sense of "to form an arch over (something)" it is first recorded 1633. Spanner (1639), the British name for the wrench, is from Ger., originally a tool for winding the spring of a wheel-lock firearm.