| 释义 |
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.
α1579–80North Plutarch (1895) II. 217 They were all in goodly gilt armours, and brave purple cassocks apon them, spicke, and spanne newe. c1590Forewords to Stubbes' Anat. (1877) 38 A spicke and spanne new Geneua Bible. 1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair iii. v. (1904) 66 Sir, this is a spell against 'hem, spicke and span new. 1659Fuller 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. a1668Davenant Jeffereidos i. Wks. (1673) 225 They found him close, beneath a spick And almost span-new-peuter-Candlestick. 1742Lond. Mag. 611 A spick and span new French or Dutch Habit. 1771Wesley Wks. (1872) IX. 181 This discovery is spick and span new; I never heard of it before. 1818Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 165 These façades..with spick-and-span-new plaster of Paris and patent cement. 1879Sala Paris Herself Again (1880) II. xvii. 270 Its gilt railings..looked spick-and-span new. 1893Vizetelly Glances Back I. i. 22 The handsome horses in spick-and-span new harness.
Comb.1607Middleton Fam. Love iv. iii, I am..of the spick and span new-set-up company of porters.
β1583Golding 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. 1598Florio s.v. Trinca, Nuoua di trinca, as we vse to say spike and span new. 1653Gataker Vind. Annot. Jer. 73 In his Preface to his spik and span New Ephemeris. 1663T. Killigrew Parson's Wed. ii. vii, Spik and span new arguments. c1789Mrs. Unwin Let. in Burgon Twelve Good Men (1888) II. 351 Two spic and span new pieces. 1855Whitby Gloss. s.v., Spic-and-span New. See Brandnew.
Hence spick-and-span newness. rare.
1640Bp. Hall Episc. iii. vii. 36 The most manifestly spick-and-span-newnesse of this devised Discipline. |