Green’s Dictionary of Slang

brownie n.1

[the colour]

1. as a coin.

(a) (orig. UK Und.) a penny, a halfpenny.

1821
185019001950
1951
[UK] ‘Sparring Exhibitions’ in Fancy I XVII 409: Poor Sutton retired scarcely a brownie the better for it.
[UK]‘Jon Bee’ A Dict. of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, etc. 4: Anticks — those who practise distortions and tricks, to attract attention and extract brownies.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Brownie a penny.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth, Aus.) 25 Feb. 14/2: A half-sovereign is half-a-quid, and a penny a brownie.
[Aus]Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 11: It’s the great Australian pastime. Fairest game on God’s earth. Just a matter of spinning a couple of brownies.

(b) (US black) a cent.

1924
193019401950
1958
[US]D. Hammett Continental Op (1975) 65: He’s going to need every brownie he can scrape up.
[US]D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 83: Can you crack this cholly for me? Knock it out in a few double ruffs, a few sous and brownies.
[US]Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 481: brownie: Cent, a penny.

2. (Aus./US, also browny) a brown-skinned person, an Asian; in Aus. an aborgine, a Japanese; in N.Z. a Maori.

1851
19001950
1966
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Mar. 2/7: If your whitey browney hit im, I’ll kill her.
[US]J. Miller First Fam’lies in the Sierras 85: Washee-Washee will lie [...] but he steals no more, do you, little brownie?
[US]New Oxford Item (Gettysburg, PA) 7/1: This phenomenon of artillery fire is a good deal of a tragical puzzle to the little browny [i.e. a Filipino].
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Apr. 24/3: A horsey young Maori undertook to engineer a grey stallion in a trot for a brother brownie recently.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 26 May 12/3: One might as well look for individuality in a bunch of grapes. At length introductions broke up the cluster, and Miss Ruby Madden fell into conversation with the dapper little brownies [i.e. Japanese].
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘The Kids’ in Roderick (1972) 809: When I was teaching a Native school down in South Island (Maoriland) years ago, my little brownies used to shout out manfully — and girlfully.
[US]S.O. Barker ‘Flete’ in Botkin Folk-Say 134: Covered wagons from whose peek-a-boo ends black-eyed, roundfaced brownies peer.
[US]W. Wilson LBJ Brigade (1967) 60: We ain’t here ta defend or capture anythin, we’re here ta kill the brownies.

3. (Aus., a cake made of flour, fat and sugar, and filled with raisins or currants; thus N.Z.) brownie-gorger, a shearer.

1893
190019502000
2003
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Two Sundowners’ in Roderick (1972) 99: He saw the cook and got some ‘brownie’, a bit of cooked meat and a packet of baking powder.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Joe Wilson’s Courtship’ in Roderick (1972) 541: Here’s some tea and brownie.
[Aus]J. Furphy Such is Life 65: I was having a drink of tea and a bit of brownie in the men’s hut.
[Aus]J. Gunn We of the Never-Never (1962) 232: Several yards of sweet currant ‘brownie’.
[Aus]C.E.W. Bean On the Wool Track 170: ’E couldn’t cook. ’E couldn’t even bake a blanky brownie.
[NZ]J. Devanny Butcher Shop 17: Here, jerk the brownie along.
[Aus]I.L. Idriess Cattle King 268: There’s no sauce. And that brownie—you would be lucky if you found a currant in it!
[Aus]Baker Aus. Lang. 80: Then there is the brownie, fattie and tommy, all mixed in the same way as the damper with the addition of sugar, currants and fat.
[Aus]W.E. Harney Content to Lie in the Sun 36: A drink of tea and a piece of ‘brownie’ (bush cake).
[Aus]T. Ronan Mighty Men on Horseback 14: Stoking his mouth with a brownie.
[Aus]J. Carson in Ammon Working Lives 157: I enjoyed my meal of chops, damper and brownie.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 35: brownie Cocoa or currant damper; treacle gingerbread among tramps; a brownie gorger is a shearer.

4. pertaining to the anus.

(a) (Aus./US) the anus, the buttocks.

1927
193019401950196019701980
1985
[US]‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 186: ‘What have you . . . a large Brownie or . . .’ ‘Ah didn’t come here to be insulted.’.
Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Sl. Thes.
[US]D. Tattersall How to make a Mini 151: We must have spent a full five minutes sliding our hands from belly to brownie meaningly, while gently pressing our lather-covered breasts together [Simes:DLSS].
[US]‘V. Hilty’ Hott Butt Halfback 141: ‘I’ll bet you love a big bone up my brownie’ [Simes:DLSS].
[Aus]B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 19: Gurus with their hands in the till and their tongues up the government’s brownie.
[US]‘Jennifer Blowdryer’ Modern English 70: anal orifice (n): [...] Brownie.

(b) (also brownie queen) a homosexual, esp. the passive partner in anal intercourse.

1916
192019301940195019601970198019902000
2005
[US] Urologic & Cutan. Rev. xx 350: In New York [‘male perverts’] are known as ‘fairies’ and wear a red necktie (inverts are generally said to prefer green). In Philadelphia they are known as ‘brownies’ [Simes:DLSS] .
[US]‘E. Lind’ Female Impersonators 89: Less extreme androgynes lack the qualifications [i.e. to live/work as a female impersonator], while practically all the extreme (commonly known as ‘fairies’, ‘fags’, or ‘brownies) lack the necessary good sense [Simes:DLSS].
[UK]J. Hanley Boy 124: ‘Can you use this boy?’ A smile wreathed the large features of the boatswain and he said surlily: ‘Can I use him. Well! Well! I can use a Brownie any time’ [Simes:DLSS].
[US]V.J. Monteleone Criminal Sl.
[US]J.M. Reinhardt Sex Perversions 47: brownie, browning queen [...] Pederasts [Simes:DLSS].
[US]Lavender Lex. n.p.: brownie queen: – A person who enjoys the receptor, role in sodomy.
[UK]L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 176: After the number of times I sunk the log last night she’d never believe I was a brownie.
[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
[US]‘V. Hilty’ Hott Butt Halfback 113: Ralph was a wild man when it came to screwing. He might have been a cocksucker and a brownie queen of sorts, but he knew how to deliver a fuck [Simes:DLSS].
[US]Maledicta III:2 231: He also may or may not know the following words and expressions: [...] bottom man (opposite: top man), brown and brownie.
[US]H. Max Gay (S)language 6: Brownie queen—gay who prefers passive role in anal intercourse.
Baker & Stanley Hello Sailor 3: As an old salt tells Fearon, many boys were used as ‘brownies’ and the practice was passed on from generation to generation.
[US]E. White My Lives 175: We’re all suck queens but they [i.e. European men] don’t even think that’s real sex. They go all the way – they’re brownie queens.

(c) the vagina.

[US]S. Stallone Paradise Alley (1978) 55: C’mon, Doll, whatta ya savin’ ya brownie for, the worms?

(d) a piece of excrement.

[UK]Indep. on Sun. Rev. 24 Oct. 23: Why did the little girl flush herself down the toilet? Because she wanted to join the Brownies.

5. (US) a small (usu. chocolate) cake impregnated with hashish or marijuana [brownie, a trad. US biscuit].

[US]E.E. Landy Underground Dict (1972) 40: brownie n. Brownie made with marijuana baked in it.

In compounds

brownie arcade (n.)

(US black) a penny amusement arcade.

[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 16 Sept. 12A: The grass streamed over her sloapes like Niagara Falls in a brownier arcade.
brownie-bandit (n.)

(US gay) an ‘active’ male homosexual.

‘G. Faulk’ Gay, Gay, Gay World 9: [...] brownie-banditing some willowy little faggot [Simes:DLSS].
brownie hound (n.)

(gay) a male homosexual.

T. Thorne Dict. Contemp. Sl. 65/2: brownie-hound n. a male homosexual.

In phrases

hawk one’s brownie (v.)

(US) to work as a prostitute.

[US]S. Stallone Paradise Alley (1978) 75: She was one of the hookers hawkin’ her brownie over at the Sunset Hotel.