Antedating of "Brownie Point"

[Stephen Goranson]

Here is an 1896 "brownie point" in the sense of.... well, first the text:
The Norfolk Virginian., December 20, 1896, Image 13 col 1
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025715/1896-12-20/ed-1/seq-13/;words=brownie+point?date1=1836&rows=20&searchType=advanced&proxdistance=5&date2=1922&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=brownie+points&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=2

Topics for Women
...
The Christmas Face
We had the "bicycle face," the "trolley face," but surely all have faded into insignificance besides the face of faces--the Christmas face! ....I'll set it down, as it strikes me: First, it is earnest, oh! so earnest--to the brownie point, in fact--and it is alert, one might almost say aquiver....


Stephen Goranson
http:.//www.duke.edu/~goranson


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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Shapiro, Fred [fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2012 10:03 AM
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Subject: [ADS-L] Antedating of "Brownie Point"

brownie point (OED 1963)

1951 _L.A. Times_ 15 Mar. A5 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers)  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.

[The article seems to derive the term from leprechauns (_brownie_ sense 1 in the OED) who calculated the points.  That etymology differs from that of OED and HDAS, which both associate the term with Girl scouts and brown-nosing.]

Fred Shapiro

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