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However, in an earlier publication, the 1960 Dictionary of American Slang, written by Dr. Harold Wentworth, with Flexner as second author, spic is first identified as a noun for an Italian or "American of Italian ancestry", along with the words spic, spig, and spiggoty, and confirms that it is shortened from the word spaghetti.
The phrase "span-new" meant as new as a freshly cut wood chip, such as those once used to make spoons. In a metaphor dating from at least 1300, something span-new was neat and unstained. [6] Spic was added in the 16th century, as a "spick" (a spike or nail) was another metaphor for something neat and trim.
Surely this section should say that the cleaning product presumably takes its name from the phrase "spick and span" (usually spelled with a k) which the OED dates back to 1665, meaning "Particularly neat, trim, or smart", (not to mention that "spick and span" itself is a shortening of a "spick and span new" that dates back to the late 1500s, etc).
Spic is an ethnic slur for a person of Latino/Hispanic descent. Spic, spik or Špik may also refer to: SPIC (Indian company), a petrochemicals company; State Power Investment Corporation, a Chinese electricity generator; Špik, a mountain in Slovenia; Luka Špik (born 1979), a Slovenian rower
In engineering, span is the distance between two adjacent structural supports (e.g., two piers) of a structural member (e.g., a beam). Span is measured in the horizontal direction either between the faces of the supports (clear span) or between the centers of the bearing surfaces (effective span): [1] A span can be closed by a solid beam or by ...
span and spick, as in "spick and span" turpitude, as in "moral turpitude" vim, as in "vim and vigor", though preserved as the name of a scouring powder [10]
A span is the distance measured by a human hand, from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger. In ancient times, a span was considered to be half a cubit. Sometimes the distinction is made between the great span or full span (thumb to little finger) and little span or short span (thumb to index finger, or index finger to little ...
Span (unit), the width of a human hand; Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports; Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft; Sorbitan esters, also known as a spans; Nebbiolo, an Italian wine grape also known as Span