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Thank You!

Posted by ESC on October 27, 2000

In Reply to: Thank You! posted by Frankie on October 27, 2000

: : : ....there is almost a dozen posts on the subject...duh!!!!

: : There are also archives of "Brand new". As in a herder branding (marking)his new or newly purchased cattle with his mark to deter thieves and pseudo publish claim to his property.

: : Does this some it up?
: : Brand new-- something new to you.
: : Spanking new-- something newly created.
: : Brand-Spanking new--something newly created to you.

: Sorry, I meant "sum it up".--as in quantitatively.

The last time the subject of "brand new" came up, I said the following. (But there was some disagreement on the origin.)

BRAND-NEW - "'Brand-new has nothing to do with the brand name of a product. It is rather associated with the word 'brand' that is cognate with 'fire,' as in firebrand. The product would thus be fresh from the anvil, or as Shakespeare put it in 'Twelfth Night,' 'fire-new.'" From Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997). According to the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988), the word "brand" ".dates back to the Middle Ages and earlier, when 'brand' meant 'flame or torch' as it does in the still current phrase 'snatching a 'brand' from the burning.' The description 'brand-new' in those days was applied to products - usually made of metal - newly taken from the flames in which they were molded."

The inserting of "spanking" is called "sandwiching." I thought you'd like to know that.

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