brownie

Etymology

From brown + -ie (diminutive suffix).

noun

1. (cooking) A small square piece of rich cake, usually made with chocolate.
   […]if she ever found out she was dying, she'd just eat brownies all day and night until the very end. 2000, Lori Gottlieb, Stick Figure: a diary of my former self, page 173
   On a Saturday afternoon, my wife bought her favorite treat for dessert that evening, a gourmet, nut-filled brownie. 2005, Aaron Lazare, On Apology, unnumbered page
   After cooking the brownies until we could smell the pot, we each ate a large brownie. 2005, Steve Otto, Memoirs of a Drugged-Up, Sex-Crazed Yippie, page 228
2. (folklore) A mythical creature, a helpful elf who would secretly do people's housework for them.
   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. 1828, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, volume II, page 169
   "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." 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 5
   1908, Dinah Craik, The Adventures of A Brownie:
   Stories were told of a brownie riding horseback to fetch the midwife at childbirth or helping his master to win at checkers. 1985, The Encyclopedia Americana, volume 1, page 636
   There are no brownies in my house, though. I know because there's always a pile of dishes in the sink. 2004, Justin Hocking, Jeffrey Knutson, Jared Jacang Maher, editors, Life and Limb: Skateboarders Write from the Deep End, page 37
3. (paganism) A household spirit or revered ancestor.
4. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the Eurasian genus Miletus.
5. (informal) A brown trout (Salmo trutta).
6. (informal) The widow rockfish (Sebastes entomelas), a fish in the family Sebastidae.
   Coordinate term: greenie
   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. 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, page 61
7. A girl in the first level of Girl Guides (US: Girl Scouts).
8. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) A tall, long-necked beer bottle, made from brown coloured glass.
9. (ethnic slur, offensive) A person of Arab, Indian or Hispanic descent. Sometimes used for a Native American or Pacific Islander.