"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 16/08/17 (brand new)

I had a tweet in from Chris Newson, who said why, when somethinh is entirely new, do we say brand new? What's the brand got to do with anything? So far if we need to look right back to the ancient meaning of brand. It's some slightly curious history but always a slightly inevitable one, as well. You'll find it in Beowulf, that Old English classic. So, very, very old. It originally meant word that was burned. It comes from Germanis root meant burnt word or word burn. It reffered, of course, to a piece of wood that was burning at one end or, indeed, a flaming torch. But, crucially, brand then came to mean the mark made by burning with a hot iron, something we know about today, usually to identify a criminal. So a lot of cruelty involved there. But also before long it was a mark of ownership, it was burnet into the hides of cattle, horses and other animals too. Brand new comes from idea that something is stright from the fire, so still very hot and entirely new. So that deals with that sense there. But in terms of advertising brands, that's quite interesting, as well. Because in the early 19th century, the manufacturers of some goods started burn their names on to casks and wood and metal, etc, and those trademarks became known themselvs as brands. Then when companies tried to differentiate themselvs in the marketplace, they started adding logo. The hole idea of a brand came wrapped up in their own identify. Of course, we still use it in that sense today. That's how the modern concept of the brand was born.