Brainchild

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Jan 31, 2008 4:55 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Damien Hall <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
>
> > Heard on Fox News Philadelphia last night (30 January):
> >
> > 'The brainchild [of the Smart car] is the same guy responsible for Swatch
> > watches.'
> >
> > This seems like a semantic 'reversal' of a type that I think is common but whose
> > label I don't know, maybe a bit akin to the transitive-intransitive reversal in
> > "I notice you have a stain on your shirt" -> "I can't wear this shirt; the
> > stain will notice" (= be noticeable). (A friend of mine says that, and I don't
> > think she's the only one.)
> >
> > Anyway, this 'reversed' sense of 'brainchild' to mean 'person who came up with
> > the idea' isn't in *OED*. It may be a nonce use - difficult to Google for -
> > but here it is, FWIW. I'm sure that the concept of the brain as the origin of
> > ideas, and the concept of 'child prodigy', come into this somewhere too.
>
> Not a reversal, I think, just a different sense: "smart person."  HDAS cites the Rev.
> Jesse Jackson's use of this term in 1969.

In the Fox News attestation, one could also posit some semantic
interference from "mastermind", or perhaps it's simply modeled on "the
brains (of/behind an undertaking, effort, etc.)". Some similar
examples:

----
http://www.boldinteractive.com/2008/01/31/letting-the-cat-out-of-the-bag/
So who else is fighting the fat? Only Donna Fontenot (the brainchild
of this whole operation).
----
http://www.travelandlivingasia.com/asia/worlds_richest_people.htm
Brit ecological-minded property developer Jeremy Paxton ... is the
brainchild of an ecologically sustainable development of second homes.
----
http://www.mass.gov/courts/probation/pr100305.html
Each week, Probation Officer Jeffrey Foote, who is the brainchild of
PASS [Probation Assisting Successful School], reviews students'
progress reports and assists students with making up missed
assignments or completing homework.
----
http://thewhitehawk.com/blogging/who-influenced-me-to-blog/
That man was none other than Paul Scrivens, best known as Scrivs who
is the brainchild behind the popular 9rules network.
----
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/06/28_goldberg.shtml
He was also the brainchild behind last year's "Ballet Mori," an
eight-minute performance by Muriel Maffre, San Francisco Ballet
principal dancer, to commemorate the anniversary of the 1906 San
Francisco earthquake.
----
http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Currents/Archive/May-18-2007.html
The brainchild behind these and other creative efforts to help reduce
accidents at the Lab is Facilities Division Safety Coordinator Janice
Sexson.
----

And many many more, Googleable here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=brainchild-behind


--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org