Antedating of "Brownie Point"

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 10:03 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> [The article seems to derive the term from leprechauns (_brownie_ sense 1 in the OED)
who calculated the points. Â That etymology differs from that of OED
and HDAS, which both associate the term with Girl scouts and
brown-nosing.]

FWIW, I was in the second year of high school in 1951 and everyone had
already been using that term for God knows how long and its origin
assigned the to even more ancient "brown-nosing" - kissing a teacher's
ass in hopes of getting a better grade - giving no thought whatsoever
to anything having to do with the Girl Scouts. In fact, IME, there is
not and never has been any connection with the brownies. What is the
connection supposed to be, anyway? I don't see it. Besides, how likely
is it that adolescent males would be using slang based on the
activities of their baby sisters? The guy telling the story didn't
offer that as a possibility. As for the brownies who came at night and
cleaned up your crib in return for a saucer of milk and a crust of
bread or whatever the deal was, they may well have garnered points for
this behavior. The story, as best I can recall it from the second
grade, had nothing to say about what the brownies' motivation was.

As for the calculating of points by leprechauns, I've never heard tell
of that. Of course,

Youneverknow.

> It's a way of figuring where you stand with the little woman -- favor or disfavor.

"The little woman" is one's wife, right? So, a reasonable assumption
is that the writer is a parent - i.e. an adult and, therefore, out of
the loop - who overheard his kids using the term, "brownie points,"
and then pulled out of his ass that bullshit etymology for use around
the water-cooler.
--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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