Brownie points

[Michael Quinion]

> I see HDAS derives the expression from the Brownies (branch of the
> Girl Scouts), which is not implausible IMHO.
>
> Quinion has presented a few other theories (unsubstantiated, I think).

I've had a lot of interesting feedback on the piece I wrote, but
likewise find that the written evidence and responses leave a lot of
loose ends.

One theory I mentioned connects it to the Brown system of demerits
(and merits, though the demerits seem to get all the coverage) on the
railways, for which there's lots of evidence for "Brownies" but not
so far as I know for "Brownie points"; its narrow constituency would
in any case count against it. The other, presented by a couple of
subscribers of mature years, links it to a system of rewarding
deliverers of magazines by the Curtis Publishing Company in the 1930s
by vouchers called "greenies" and "brownies". I included this in the
last newsletter in the hope that it would spark some responses; one
has come in saying that they weren't brownies but "goldies", which
would kill the theory dead. I haven't so far been able to confirm or
dismiss either term.

Though a link with "brown-nose" is often asserted, with implications
that "Brownie points" was WW2 services slang, it is interesting that
several examples of the phrase "Brownie points" appear in newspapers
in the 1950s. If it had been known to be scatalogical at this period,
as many subscribers insist, would it really have been allowed to be
so freely printed?

> (2) Is it certain that there was a previous entity called a "Brownie
> point" within the Brownies organization, or is it simply assumed that
> anything called within the Brownies a "point" could be called a
> "Brownie point" by outsiders? Is there any known record of a literal
> "Brownie point" (referring to the Brownies) and if so from what date?

My subscribers are divided on this: some say that there were Brownie
points, so called, others that there weren't. I, too, would like a
definitive answer!

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <wordseditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>