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Anyone else familiar with the derogatory usage? (of Brownie Points) To me (in UK) the phrase Brownie points is neutral, with any positive or derogatory implications provided by context, tone, etc. "He's too busy collecting Brownie Points to do anything really useful", or "Doing a good job on this won't get you a bonus directly, but it will add to your Brownie points". Rod
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>To me (in UK) the phrase Brownie points is neutral
I agree. I rely on friends for child-care from time to time and feel that I have to have enough brownie points in hand to feel able to ask them. It just means that I don't want to take more than I give.
I don't think Brownies do get points, they get badges but I guess that is where it comes from.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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A) Welcome back, Jo.
2) It never occurred to me that brown-nose and brownie points weren't connected, but then I never was in the Brownies®.
Þ) Used to have a certain affection for the baseball team. I've even eaten some, regular and magic ones.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In French Canada we have Girl Guides and Boy Scouts, and Brownies definitely get points. Mind you, I was a Brownie many moons ago and that whole system may have changed at the same time as the postman became a letter carrier.
When is Bean back? I'd would be nice to get her input for English Canada - plus she is younger than I, so she may just throw my whole explanation a kilter
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
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I don't really have anything to add to what has been posted by my learned friends. I would like to point out what a blessing new, colorful expressions are. Can you imagine a small group standing around the water cooler in the office and someone saying, "Oh, yes, that Eustace. What an obsequious sycophant he is!"
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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For UK usage of brownie points as a belittling term, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_765000/765184.stm
yeahbut®
They were using this as an ironic pun on the politician's name, not, I think, as a derogatory usage.
The way I would define typical UK usage of this term is neutral in itself, but sometimes with an ironic context. In a similar fashion with another neutral term I might say: "Margaret is very pretty" (neutral descriptive phrase) or: "Margaret is very pretty....!" (subtext: "but she's a complete airhead!"
The context will convey your attitude as to whether the brownie points in question are admirable or pathetically egregious.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Oh, yes, that Eustace. What an obsequious sycophant he is!"Oh, Bob! I love it! I nearly pulled a bel and sprayed my keyboard! Oh, DO tell me you have done that sometime, won't you? Oh, every time I read it, I laugh harder!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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[just because I've got this cluttering up my drive and have little use for it]
minion toady lackey lickspittle bootlicker claque myrmidon factotum sycophant truckler panderer fawner flunky stooge kowtower groveler apple-polisher brown-nose kiss-ass pickthank (archaic) toadeater (archaic) tufthunter earwig clawback limberham (archaic) running dog Gnatho [gnathonic, obs] smooger
[suggestions welcomed]
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Joined: Dec 2000
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addict
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A glorious list, tsuwm! I particularly like "smooger."
As to factotum - I haven't typically heard this with the connotation of obsequious sycophant, but rather in the sense of "one who does a little bit of everything" from the Latin fare + totum.
Do others hear the negative connotation in this?
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