DCHP-3

browner

DCHP-2 (Nov 2012)
n. — informal, derogatory, usually Education

someone said to be over-deferential to teachers or other powerful people in order to get ahead.

Type: 2. Preservation — This is a shortening of the term brown-noser, which is marked in the OED-3 as "U.S. slang" and has American citations from as early as 1939 (see OED-3).
See also COD-2, s.v. "browner", which is marked "Cdn (Ont.) informal", and OED-3, s.v. "brown-nose", which is marked "chiefly U.S. slang".
See: keener

Quotations

1976
As two students in the Level Six program at Northern Secondary School, we were very disappointed by the headline of the article giving coverage to this program (No Time for Slowpokes in Class for Smart Ones, May 24). It has been hard enough for us to live with the constant taunt of "browners," etc., throughout public school, but to have such a widely read newspaper encourage the title "smart ones" is unacceptable -- and untrue.
1978
They wince when people call them browners or eggheads, but they're not modest about being the brightest students in Toronto's public high schools. They say they try to fade into the crowd and act like everyone else, but they know they're whiz kids. The motto on their school newsletter says, "We used to be conceited, but now we're perfect."
1982
So now we know that even PhDs can be regular fellas (Devine: He's Just a Farmer With PhD - April 27). Chewing toothpicks, dropping Gs, mainstreeting and playing rock and roll, apparently helped Grant Devine, newly elected provincial leader in Saskatchewan, to reassure the voters that they would be choosing a human being, not a "goggle-eyed browner," as most scholars are popularly misconceived.
1988
Chris's near brush with death was sparked by many pressures he was under at school where some classmates would beat him up and call him names like "nerd, browner and Einstein."
1990
Keener -- A student who tries to show off in class to impress the instructor. Also called a browner.
2001
I was what in those ancient days was called a browner, a shameless, relentless, irredeemable browner. I was the teacher's pet, a suck beyond all bearing.
2007
Mr. Dion needs to lose the goofy specs and get contacts so that he stops looking like the kid who always got 100 per cent in chemistry class. We called those guys Browners.
2013
If we want more entrepreneurs, how about we teach them to be, you know, entrepreneurial: self-reliant, innovative, customer-focused, not a bunch of browners trotting off to Ottawa for a pat on the head?

References

  • OED-3
  • COD-2