Spick-and-span

This is a shortened form of spick-and-span new, a term originally used in the shipbuilding trade. A spik was a “spike” and a span was a “chip or shaving.” Thus anything spick-and-span new would be sparkling new. As an example of how fashions in language change, note that Dr. Samuel Johnson entered this term very reluctantly in his dictionary (1755), for he felt that is was one he “should not have expected to have found authorized by a polite writer.” Although he had to admit that writers as distinguished as Dean Swift and Samuel Butler had used it, Dr. Sam still growled that “spick-and-span is, however, a low word.”