brand new
- 1Entirely new, as new as something can possibly be.
After the divorce, she moved across the country to start a brand new life.
The car had a few scratches, but the dealer insisted it was brand new.
Similarnew, unused, fresh, mint, pristine
Oppositeused, old, secondhand, worn
Note
The phrase pictures the forge: the brand is a firebrand, so something brand new has come fresh from the fire, and fire-new is built the same way. A branding iron is the less likely source. John Foxe writes brande-newe in 1570, and older writing sometimes drops the d, as in bran-new. Since nothing is newer than brand new, the phrase takes no more or most.
- 2Behaving in a way that is out of character, unlike how one normally acts.
Ever since she got that promotion, she's been acting brand new around the old crew.
Don't act brand new with me. I've known you since third grade.
Similardifferent, funny, strange
Note
Slang with an edge of complaint: it rides on the verb act, and telling someone to quit actin' brand new accuses them of putting on a new manner for a reason the speaker can guess, such as a girl in the room. Before a noun the phrase falls back on the everyday meaning, so a brand new friend is simply a new one. Keep this sense for casual talk.
Practice
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Origin
From brand ("firebrand") + new, suggesting something freshly forged; it is first recorded in 1570 (compare fire-new, "fresh from the fire"). A less likely explanation links it to a branding iron, as if newly branded. The variant bran new, which drops the d sound, is often explained after the fact as coming from bran supposedly used to pack new goods in the 18th century, but the source of that story is unknown; both forms are well attested.