These are Anu's words about it in today's compendium:

"The term "brand new" refers to a brand (a burning piece of wood), implying straight from the fire, i.e. newly made in a furnace. Then there is "brand spanking new". The word spanking here is as an intensifier, used in the adverbial sense of the word, meaning extremely or remarkably. There appears not to be a connection to the spanking of a newly born baby to gets her breathing started.
The spelling spic-and-span and its association with cleanness is from the popular household cleaning product Spic and Span."
-Anu Garg

Last edited by BranShea; 01/11/09 10:06 AM.