Brownie points

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 02:04:32 -0500, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:

>Michael Quinion discussed possible etyma for "brownie points" recently.
>
>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
>have (of course) a naive dubious notion of my own, but before I embarrass
>myself again I would like to ask Jonathan Lighter and all the other
scholars:
>
>(1) Is *any* expression of the exact form "brownie point" definitely
>attested before 1951?

I assume Doug is referring to a 1951 L.A. Times citation, which is not
mentioned in Michael Quinion's piece (he mentions two 1954 cites from
Newspaperarchive).  The 1951 article is interesting, in that it doesn't
mention "Brownies" (or capitalize the term), instead relating "brownie
points" to the older sense of "brownie" as an elfin spirit:

-----
Los Angeles Times, Mar 15, 1951, p. A5
Brownie Points--a New Measure of a Husband
By Marvin Miles

I first heard about them when the chap standing next to me in the elevator
pulled a letter from his pocket, looked at it in dismay and muttered:
"More lost brownie points."
Figuring him for an eccentric, I forgot about them until that evening when
one of the boys looked soulfully into the foam brimming his glass and said
solemnly:
"I should have been home two hours ago ... I'll never catch up on my
brownie points."
Brownie points! What esoteric cult was this that immersed men in pixie
mathematics?
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"Brownie points," he said. "You either have 'em or you don't. Mostly you
don't. But if you work hard you sometimes get even. I never heard of
anyone getting ahead on 'em.
"Are you feeling all right?"
"Sure, sure. I'm just worried about my points, that's all."
"What's this genie geometry all about?"
"You don't know about brownie points? All my buddies keep score. In fact
every married male should know about 'em. It's a way of figuring where you
stand with the little woman -- favor or disfavor. Started way back in the
days of the leprechauns, I suppose, long before there were any doghouses."
[...]
"If a leprechaun figured out brownie points," I mused, "you can bet it was
a girl leprechaun, some scheming sprite who wanted to tie up her guy's
conscience in addition and subtraction -- mostly subtraction."
-----

So if the Brownie system of merits/demerits is the ultimate source of the
expression, then there were at least two subsequent reinterpretations:
"brownie" as a euphemism for "brown-nosing", and "brownie" in the elfin
sense. (Or, as Michael mentions, these could all be reinterpretations of
the voucher system of the Curtis Publishing Co.)


--Ben Zimmer