brownie
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɹaʊni/
rhymes: -aʊni
Forms: form: brownies
Etymology: From brown + -ie (diminutive suffix). In folkloric sense, originally Scots. For sense 7, compare with Dutch kabouter (“a very young female member of the scout movement”) (literally "gnome").
Senses: examples: text: Order for the brownie was placed but it took half an hour to prepare it.
text: […]if she ever found out she was dying, she'd just eat brownies all day and night until the very end.
ref: 2000, Lori Gottlieb, Stick Figure: a diary of my former self, page 173:
text: Rona served Althea coffee with yellow milk curdling in the center, and a hunk of brownie, and Althea said, “Thanks so much.”
ref: 2000, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, “The Visible Man”, in The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 197:
text: On a Saturday afternoon, my wife bought her favorite treat for dessert that evening, a gourmet, nut-filled brownie.
ref: 2005, Aaron Lazare, On Apology, unnumbered page:
text: After cooking the brownies until we could smell the pot, we each ate a large brownie.
ref: 2005, Steve Otto, Memoirs of a Drugged-Up, Sex-Crazed Yippie, page 228:
text: “If she has to list everyone from school friends to teachers, this is going to take a while, huh?” Stephanie commented, slipping a generous slice of brownie onto a plate. […] She carried a plate with a slice of brownie around and set it in front of Basil, […]
ref: 2015, Lynsay Sands, The Immortal who Loved Me, London: Gollancz, →ISBN, pages 224–225:
text: As their coffee and cakes arrived – Tim had opted for a slice of brownie that looked about as impressive as the table – she noticed that the initials TL were inscribed on his cufflinks, and also, confirming what Molly had told her, that he had no ring on the fourth finger of his left hand.
ref: 2017, Cressida McLaughlin, The Once in a Blue Moon Guesthouse, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 37:
topics: baking
cooking
food
lifestyle
synonyms: chocolate brownie
glosses: A small square piece of rich cake, usually made with chocolate.
examples: text: It was an amusing sight to see the three of us, each with a huge hunch of “browny” (bread sweetened with brown sugar and currants) in one hand, and a lump of ice in the other, for there was no water within reach.
ref: 1883, James Edge Partington, “A Race Meeting in the Bush—A Graphic Though Ungallant Picture—Life on an Australian Stock Farm—[…]” (chapter VII), in Random Rot. A Journal of Three Years’ Wanderings about the World., Altrincham: […] [T]he Guardian Office, page 312:
text: They rode quietly along to the stockman’s hut, gave their message, rested their horses for half-an-hour, and had some tea without milk, and a piece of cake made of flour, fat, and sugar, commonly known as [“]browny.”
ref: 1890, E[lphinstone] Davenport Cleland, “‘The Shaking’ Mallee Tree”, in The White Kangaroo. A Tale of Colonial Life. Founded on Fact., London: Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co., […], page 57:
text: Four o’clock, “Smoke O!” again, and more tea and “brownie” (a bread sweetened with sugar and currants).
ref: 1890 September 20, M. Hirst Browne, “Shearing-Time in the Riverine”, in The Argus, number 13,804, Melbourne, Vic., page 13, column 6:
text: Roast mutton and brownie are given us to eat, and with a billy of tea beside us we are comfortable enough, prisoners and all.
ref: 1892, Gilbert Parker, “Glimpses of Australian Life: In Time of Drought”, in Round the Compass in Australia, Melbourne, Vic.; […]: E[dward] W[illiam] Cole, […], part I, page 36:
text: Pile of “brownie” on the bare black boards at the end of the table.
ref: 1900, Henry Lawson, “‘A Rough Shed’”, in On the Track, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus and Robertson, […], page 129:
text: Undoubtedly our Christmas dinner was a huge success—from a black fellow’s point of view it was the most sensible thing we Whites had ever organised; for half the Vealer, another huge pudding, several yards of sweet currant “brownie,” a new pipe apiece, and a few pounds of tobacco had found their way to the “humpy”; […]
ref: [1908], Jeannie Gunn, chapter XXIII, in We of the Never-Never, London: Hutchinson & Co. […], page 251:
text: As he spoke I tossed some tea into a billy-can of boiling water and as we sipped at our pannikin of tea and ate at a slice of brownie, old Mirawong told me the story of Manbuk and the seven sisters of the heavens.
ref: 1959, W[illiam] E[dward] (Bill) Harney, “Of crocodiles and stars”, in Tales from the Aborigines, London: Robert Hale Limited, […], part one (Tales of Fantasy), page 40:
text: However, a couple of days later, I was passing near Old Jim’s camp and he called us over for a mug of tea and a hunk of brownie.
ref: 1959, H[arold] P[ercival] ‘Duke’ Tritton, Time Means Tucker, Arncliffe, N.S.W.: Akron Press, published 1984, →ISBN, pages 58–59:
topics: baking
cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: A sweet bread with brown sugar and currants.
examples: text: Thus, offer Brownie a piece of bread, a cup of drink, or a new coat and hood, and he flouted at it, and perhaps, in his huff, quitted the place for ever ; but leave a nice bowl of cream, and some fresh honeycomb, in a snug private corner, and they soon disappeared, though Brownie, it was to be supposed, never knew any thing of them.
ref: 1828, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, volume II, page 169:
text: "Oh, auntie, do you know what Stine says?" cried a little brown-eyed beauty; "she says I shall go with her into the hayloft to-night and give the brownie his Christmas porridge."
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 5:
ref: 1908, Dinah Craik, The Adventures of A Brownie:
text: Stories were told of a brownie riding horseback to fetch the midwife at childbirth or helping his master to win at checkers.
ref: 1985, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 1, page 636:
text: There are no brownies in my house, though. I know because there's always a pile of dishes in the sink.
ref: 2004, Justin Hocking, Jeffrey Knutson, Jared Jacang Maher, editors, Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End, page 37:
text: Pseudunus and his group looked around, frightened, and realized that three more treents surrounded them, accompanied by a myriad of other creatures. Centaurs, elves, humans, satyrs, halflings, mémechares and brounies surrounded them on all sides, except the one they had come from. Bears and wolves, clearly under the effect of natural magic spells, gritted their teeth and growled menacingly, while snakes hissed in defiance.
ref: 2018 May 26, Joel Puga, “Chapter 6 Faiths”, in The Godungava, Joel Puga:
topics: arts
folklore
history
human-sciences
literature
media
publishing
sciences
glosses: A mythical creature, a helpful elf who would secretly do people's housework for them.
examples: text: He rose and jingled in his pockets for change and drew out two brownies. He went and set one on each of Monroe’s eyes[.]
ref: 1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 36:
glosses: A copper coin, brown in colour; a penny, halfpenny, or cent.
topics: lifestyle
paganism
religion
glosses: A household spirit or revered ancestor.
glosses: Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the Eurasian genus Miletus.
glosses: A brown trout (Salmo trutta).
examples: text: Depending upon the species, fishers may harvest along the ocean floor for many rockfish and other groundfish, while hake, pollock, and some rockfish species (i.e. greenies and brownies) are targeted with mid-water trawls.
ref: 2007, R. Quentin Grafton, Harry W. Nelson, Bruce Turris, “How to Resolve the Class II Common Property Problem? The Case of British Columbia's Multi-Species Groundfish Trawl Fishery”, in Trond Bjørndal, Daniel V. Gordon, Ragnar Arnason, U. Rashid Sumaila, editors, Advances in Fisheries Economics: Festschrift in Honour of Professor Gordon R. Munro, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, page 61:
coordinate_terms: greenie
glosses: A widow rockfish (Sebastes entomelas), a fish in the family Sebastidae.
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of Brownie (“a girl in the first level of Girl Guides (US: Girl Scouts)”).
glosses: A tall, long-necked beer bottle, made from brown coloured glass.
glosses: A person with brown skin.
Derived terms: Alice B. Toklas brownie
brookie
brownie point
county brownie
funny brownie
hash brownie
pot brownie
weed brownie