Brownie points in modern usage are an imaginary social currency, which can be acquired by doing

good In most contexts, the concept of good denotes the conduct that should be preferred when posed with a choice between possible actions. Good is generally considered to be the opposite of evil and is of interest in the study of ethics, morality, ph ...

deeds or earning favor in the eyes of another, often one's spouse.

Conjectures for etymology

Girlguiding

A popular etymology is an allusion to the merit badges or six points earned by Brownies (junior Girl Guides/Girl Scouts) for carrying out good deeds. Brownies were named after a kind of mythological elf that does helpful things around the house.

Brown stamps

A popular marketing practice employed by many stores in post-World War II US was the distribution of stamps with each purchase. The number of stamps given out varied with the amount of the purchase. These stamps were collected by customers and later redeemed for household gifts. The earliest of these stamps were brown in color and known as "brown stamps" or "brown points". The relationship between a purchase and the collection of these "brown points" equated with doing a good thing (supporting the local vendor) and getting a bonus (the valuable stamps). Purportedly, the collection of these "brownie points" eventually evolved into the modern usage. The term Browniepoints is still used as a marketing practice in business today by a New Zealand power company and also used by a gift service.

George R. Brown

Another proposed etymology is that the term derives from the name of a 19th-century American railroad superintendent, George R. Brown who, in 1886, devised what was then an innovative system of merits and demerits for railroad employees on the Fall Brook Railway in New York state. Accounts of his system were published in railroad journals, and adopted by many leading U.S. railroads. American railroad employees soon began referring colloquially to "brownie points", and at some point, the term entered the general vocabulary.

Curtis Publishing

In the 1930s, The

Curtis Publishing Company The Curtis Publishing Company, founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, became one of the largest and most influential publishers in the United States during the early 20th century. The company's publications included the ''Ladies' Home Jour ...

, published several magazines, including the ''

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

'' and the ''

Ladies Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...

''. These magazines were distributed to subscribers through a delivery network that used youths, primarily boys, to go around to the individual houses. The boys received a small commission but, in return for meeting certain sales targets, they could also receive company

scrip A scrip (or '' chit'' in India) is any substitute for legal tender. It is often a form of credit. Scrips have been created and used for a variety of reasons, including exploitive payment of employees under truck systems; or for use in local com ...

, comprising green and brown vouchers. These vouchers were usually known as "greenies" and "brownies". Five greenies equalled one brownie. The greenies and brownies could be redeemed against goods from the company's catalogue.

Scatological

The '' Oxford English Dictionary'' conjectures that this expression could also have derived from

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...

slang for

sycophant In modern English, sycophant denotes an "insincere flatterer" and is used to refer to someone practising sycophancy (i.e., insincere flattery to gain advantage). The word has its origin in the legal system of Classical Athens. Most legal cases o ...

s, " brown-nosers", while also mentioning the popular etymology that derives it from the awards system of the Brownies. The term "brownie" in the sense of "brown-noser" was in use in the 1940s. It has been suggested that the term was given impetus through its coincidence with related scatological slang.World Wide Words: Brownie points
/ref>

Earliest use

The earliest published citation given in the '' Oxford English Dictionary'' dates from 1963 (when it was reported in the journal ''

American Speech ''American Speech'' is a quarterly academic journal of the American Dialect Society, established in 1925 and currently published by Duke University Press. It focuses primarily on the English language used in the Western Hemisphere, but also publ ...

''), but the term is in fact somewhat older. Its frequent appearance in newspapers in the 1950s date back to the earliest known usage in 1951, where a man in the ''Los Angeles Times'' speaks of earning favor with his wife in terms of brownie points.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brownie Points Ethics Fictional currencies