Brownie points

Factual Questions
21

Both my Random House and American Heritage dictionaries give the Girl Scout point system the credit for the phrase.

Reality Chuck: the fact the that first written citation is from the 1960s doesn’t necessarily invalidate an earlier origin. A large number of words exist in the oral vocabulary before a written cite becomes available. I don’t say this is necessarily the case here, but a WWII origin is not impossible.

Aha, on preview I see samclem’s post. Score one for wordorigins.

22

Exapno – you’re right that the first cite in the OED may be somewhat behind the origin of the word. However, a 20-year gap is unlikely.

Plus the fact that the first cite is college slang makes a good deal of sense. After all, a college professor is in a position to award points to a brown-nosing student.

Partridge says it actually dates back to 1908 in Canada, meaning “demerits.” He agrees that it’s a U.S. usage, though.

I’ll have to look at Lightner.