spick-and-span

The story

1. Old Norse · derived fromspan-nyr
2. Middle English · inherited fromspan-new“very new”
3. English todayspick-and-span

From spick-and-span-new (literally “new as a recently made spike and chip of wood”) (1570s), from spick (“nail”, variant of spike) + Middle English span-new (“very new”) (from circa 1300 until 1800s), from Old Norse span-nyr, from spann (“chip”) (cognate to Old English spón, English spoon, due to spoons once being made of wood) + nyr (“new”) (cognate to Old English nīewe, English new). Imitation of Dutch spiksplinternieuw (literally “spike-splinter new”), for a freshly built ship. Observe that fresh woodchips are firm and light (if from light wood), but decay and darken rapidly, hence the origin of the term.

Words from the same roots