[Ads-l] "No-brainer" [Antedatings: 1953, 1954]

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

In the sense of, as the OED puts it, "[s]omething that requires or involves
little mental effort or intelligence to perform or understand; esp. an
easily made decision," the earliest example of which the dictionary offers
dates to 1959. The OED's example of the adjectival form ("[r]equiring or
involving little mental effort or intelligence; simple, mindless,
undemanding") was published in 1976.

Below are some earlier appearances of the adjectival (1953) and noun (1954)
forms. (Boy, are there a lot of appearances in old newspapers of "brainer"
that are meant to be "brainier.")

BTW, I had found the meaning of the OED's 1959 example of "no brainer"
pretty opaque, but now I see that it's clearly using it as a gin rummy
term. (See the second and third examples, below, too.) You can find the
whole comic strip at
https://www.newspapers.com/article/independent-no-brainer-in-the-berrys-c/135321456/
.

-- Bonnie

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We're talking about the pigskin selections for the first week of the 1953
college gridiron campaign. We are used to starting off the season with a
percentage up around the .950 mark -- and coasting in the rest of the year.
But this season we are going to dig right in with some foolproof,
air-tight, no-brainer selections. [Hal Wood, "U.S.C. Picked over Gophers,"
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 24 September 1953, p. 23.]

Gin rummy players are using a colorful phrase to describe a pat hand held
by an opponent. They call it a "no-brainer." [Bill Gold's District Line
Column, "Bill Had One Once and Misplayed It," The Washington Post and Times
Herald, 2 October 1954, p. 36.]

The game has also developed a phraseology of its own. A hand that is an
immediate laydown is called a "no brainer." [Jack Geyer, "On Gin Rummy,"
The Los Angeles Times, 25 January 1955, Section II, p. 5.]

These are "no-brainer" deals -- it doesn't take brains to give cars away --
come in and enjoy our ignorance! [In an advertisement for Hult's
dealership, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), 2 May 1955, Section 2, p. 6.
Standalone "No Brainers!" appeared in a lot of Hult's subsequent ads.]

"That's fine. I hope [the Cubs] don't score another run for ["knuckleballer
Jim Davis"] until we get out of town Thursday night. I'd like to see how it
feels to win a no-brainer for a change." ["Lou Smith's Notes; Reds, Cubs
Play Double-Header in Chicago Today," The Cincinnati Enquirer, 15 August
1956, p. 34.]

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