spick and span new, a.
Also spick-and-span new. (For other variations see quots.)
[Emphatic extension of span-new a. The same first element appears in the synonymous Du. and Flem. spikspeldernieuw, -splinternieuw (WFlem. -spankelnieuw).]
Absolutely or perfectly new; brand-new; perfectly fresh or unworn.
The β-quots. show the more unusual spellings.
| α 1579–80 North Plutarch (1895) II. 217 They were all in goodly gilt armours, and brave purple cassocks apon them, spicke, and spanne newe. c 1590 Forewords to Stubbes' Anat. (1877) 38 A spicke and spanne new Geneua Bible. 1614 B. Jonson Barth. Fair iii. v. (1904) 66 Sir, this is a spell against 'hem, spicke and span new. 1659 Fuller App. Inj. Innoc. ii. 31 The Animadvertor will not wear words at the second hand of my using, but will have them spick and span new of his own making. a 1668 Davenant Jeffereidos i. Wks. (1673) 225 They found him close, beneath a spick And almost span-new-peuter-Candlestick. 1742 Lond. Mag. 611 A spick and span new French or Dutch Habit. 1771 Wesley Wks. (1872) IX. 181 This discovery is spick and span new; I never heard of it before. 1818 Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 165 These fa{cced}ades..with spick-and-span-new plaster of Paris and patent cement. 1879 Sala Paris Herself Again (1880) II. xvii. 270 Its gilt railings..looked spick-and-span new. 1893 Vizetelly Glances Back I. i. 22 The handsome horses in spick-and-span new harness. |
| Comb. 1607 Middleton Fam. Love iv. iii, I am..of the spick and span new-set-up company of porters. |
| β 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. clxxxii. 1130/1 They [Papists] make men beleeue that the breade is no more a materiall thing... And that is spycke and spawne newe. 1598 Florio s.v. Trinca, Nuoua di trinca, as we vse to say spike and span new. 1653 Gataker Vind. Annot. Jer. 73 In his Preface to his spik and span New Ephemeris. 1663 T. Killigrew Parson's Wed. ii. vii, Spik and span new arguments. c 1789 Mrs. Unwin Let. in Burgon Twelve Good Men (1888) II. 351 Two spic and span new pieces. 1855 Whitby Gloss. s.v., Spic-and-span New. See Brandnew. |
Hence
spick-and-span newness.
rare.
| 1640 Bp. Hall Episc. iii. vii. 36 The most manifestly spick-and-span-newnesse of this devised Discipline. |