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From spick-and-span-new(literally “new as a recently made spike and chip of wood”) (1570s), from spick(“nail”, variant of spike) + Middle Englishspan-new(“very new”) (from circa 1300 until 1800s), from Old Norsespan-nyr, from spann(“chip”) (cognate to Old Englishspón, Englishspoon, due to spoons once being made of wood) + nyr(“new”) (cognate to Old Englishnīewe, Englishnew). Imitation of Dutchspiksplinternieuw(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.
The Warders strutted up and down, / And kept their herd of brutes, / Their uniforms were spick and span, / And they wore their Sunday suits, / But we knew the work they had been at, / By the quicklime on their boots.
1919 , Jack London, The Red One, London: Mills and Boon:
“But the traders ruined his digestion with too much champagne, and after several years he fell for the Gospel according to the Methodists, sent his people to church, and cleaned up the beach and the trading crowd so spick and span that he would not permit them to smoke a pipe out of doors on Sunday,
Mr. and Mrs. Chow, for instance, drew up one afternoon in their spick-and-span coupe with their intolerably spotless only child sitting self-consciously beside them.
1942 March, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes”, in Railway Magazine, page 93:
The "V4" 2-6-2 Bantam Cock is now stationed at Norwich, and its spick-and-span condition does credit to the cleaners at that shed.
Wipe down the upholstery – now when it comes to upholstery, it don't need to be spic and span, you don't need to eat off in. Give it a good once over.
2014 February 18, XoXo, BOOK WORM_98, “My Life with the Walter Boys by Ali Novak—review”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
From a spick and span penthouse in New York, to a ranch in Colorado, from a posh boarding school to public school, and from having virtually no boys in her life to having 12!