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HotForWords: Brand Spanking New! Fresh from the fire!

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Uploaded by on Feb 28, 2011

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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Top Comments

  • @ImTheSchwa 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.

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

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All Comments (819)

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  • Intelligence IS sexy, it seems...

  • Что мои "brand spanking new"? Ну, я могу сказать вам, что нового, как молодых, заклеймили и шлепали: мой роговой мазохистской подругой!

    What of mine is brand spanking new? Well, I could tell you what's new as in young, branded and spanked: my horny masochistic girlfriend!

  • A box of kitchen matches

  • This is a great & BRAND NEW vhs from you. I think this is one of the most favorite of mine of all that you have done so far. I love this VHS! What great film editing--very creative! You are a great teacher and a real propensity or penchant for explaining new ideas & concepts. Maybe it is from your artist side new and novel ways to approach each new undertaking! Always so novel, intriguing & enchanting!

  • I don't think I like your new haircut

  • @katyushamusic Cockney (english) rhyming slang.

  • your gloves are great, teach! you should do more videos with them :)

  • can someone please tell me where I can find school backgrounds like the ones that she uses?

  • i have a brand new boner

  • Yours videos are cool.

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