spick and span
idiom

- very clean and tidy

(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

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WORD ORIGIN

For an idiom that means clean and tidy, the origin of spick and span is rather untidy. This strange expression has been around for hundreds of years, but no one has been able to pinpoint its roots. For starters, let's look at the definition of each word:

spick - an alteration of the word spike (a large nail), a slice of bacon, a floret of lavender

span - a chip of wood, a measurement, a chain

It takes someone with a broad imagination to guess which combination gives us a phrase that means clean and spotless. However, there is a common thread among the explanations provided by most etymology authorities:

Spann-nyr is Old Norse for a piece of wood recently chopped from a piece of timber. Nyr meant new and spann referred to a chip. This phrase first appeared in English in the 14th century in the form of "span-new."

Spick, as in spike or nail, likely derived from an old Dutch expression "spiksplinternieuw", which referred to a newly-built ship with brand new nails and wood.

Thus one can deduce that spick and span simply evolved from the combination of two words that describe something in a new condition. The phrase "spick and span new" first appeared in the 16th century and eventually shortened to the current form.

Procter and Gamble, the American household products company, adopted the phrase as a trademark for one of its cleaning products Spic and Span. Be warned that "spic" is also a negative term in the U.S. for Hispanics (people of Spanish origin).

(sources: World Wide Words, Phrase Finder, Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins)

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SYNONYMS

clean, pristine, pure, unblemished, spotless, immaculate, untarnished, impeccable

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ANTONYMS

dirty, filthy, grimy, grubby, messy

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Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"The meeting room needs to be SPICK AND SPAN before the guests arrive."