HotForWords - HotForWords - Brand Spanking New! Fresh from the fire!

Retweet Me: http://bit.ly/RTBrandNew
Why is it that something that is so new is called brand new? Why brand? Isn't a brand a trade name? What does that have to do with something being new?
HotForWords investgates brand new.
To understand the phrase brand new.. one has to look at the word brand itself. Brand comes to us from all the way back to the old English word brand which means "fire".. the German brand also means fire.. these all come from the Proto-Germanic base where we got the word burn from as well.
But what does fire have to do with something being super new?
Well.. for that.. let's look at the process of making a sword.. when you make a sword you melt the metal in a fire... then you shape. it. while still keeping it in the fire.. hammering out the shape as it cools... When the sword is done.. it's so new it's "fresh from the fire".. which is where the expression came from...
Brand New.. means "fresh from the fire".. Shakespeare also used the term "fire-new" to mean the same thing.
But, then how does the word brand also mean a tradename? Well.. for that we go to my favorite animal.. the cow!
When you need to mark your cow, to let others know it belongs to you, you would heat up metal design, with perhaps your name or picture on it, then after it got really hot, you would stick it on the cow, thus burning your mark into it - or branding it.
Because that brand was specific to you.. that's how we got the term brand name as well.. all related to fire.
There you go.. another mystery solved by your trusty HotForWords.
For your homework.... what do you have that is brand spankin' new?

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[RonQE]

Umm, have you ever WATCHED her videos?

Nearly every video, she goes to great lengths to look like a porn star. She always flaunts her huge plastic implants; quite the opposite of trying to conceal them at all.

If those juvenile comments and teenage-minded drooling fools actually bothered her, don't you think she would have stopped flaunting her implants long, long ago?

Her whole image is to look like a porn star but to give genuinely intelligent commentary on etymology.

[jenapae]

So, where does brand "spanking" new come from?

[windsurfing19]

the dutch brand also means fire

[TheNoiseySpectator]

Why did she stop making these? I still have so many questions!

Like why is there a silent S in the word "island"?

[Aldo Sabalza]

Is gay

[EvilJirachi]

Oh no! Look its the moral police! 

[dimethylethyltritolu]

lose the bow, KEEP the gloves. "brand spanking new" has screwed up MORE searches than i can remember. a fellow word lover, and teacher, complete with blackboard and apple. so how does she feel about paddles?

[TheKatz84]

wow! You are amazing!!

[iron1215]

i think they use to spank new babies when they where born to get their first breath or something. i don't they they spank new born babies anymore. But that's where brand spanking new came from.

[TheWISEMAN77]

love your show one of my favorites youtube ch looking four next BRAND NEW video.

[Dragonmuphin]

Intelligence IS sexy, it seems...