brainchild

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English

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WOTD – 26 April 2024

Etymology

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From brain +‎ child.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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brainchild (plural brainchilds or brainchildren)

  1. (informal) A creation of one's brain; an original idea or innovation of a person or group of people, an organization, etc.
    The entire project was the brainchild of a small group of visionaries.
    • 1629 (first performance), B[en] Jonson, The New Inne. Or, The Light Heart. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Thomas Alchorne, […], published 1631, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, signature B, recto:
      A brayne-child o' mine ovvne! and I am proud on't!
    • 1877 July 3 (date written), Thomas J. Mumford, “Editorial Life. [Letter to Mrs. W.]”, in Life and Letters of Thomas J. Mumford, […], Boston, Mass.: George H. Ellis, […], published 1879, →OCLC, page 110:
      I am glad you find so many lovers of your brain children in the West, although I knew it would be so.
    • 1920 April 10 – August 28, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, chapter 17, in The Little Warrior [Jill the Reckless], New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 8 October 1920, →OCLC, section 1, page 312:
      Then, gradually, the almost maternal yearning to see his brain-child [a play] once more, which can never be wholly crushed out of a young dramatist, returned to him—faintly at first, then getting stronger by degrees till it could no longer be resisted. True, he knew that when he beheld it, the offspring of his brain would have been mangled almost out of recognition, but that did not deter him.
    • 1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Quit Foolin’ with That Comb”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 1 (1899–1923: A Nothin’ but a Child), page 54:
      Inspiration's old lady gave birth to a new brainchild one afternoon at a Rhythm Kings rehearsal, when I took a few choruses on Jack Pettis' C-melody sax while he was out humoring his bladder.
    • 1975 May 14, Otto E[rnest] Passman, chairman, “International Development Association”, in Foreign Assistance and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1976: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session [...] Part 1 [...], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 728:
      We had these people for years and years, such as Mr. [Robert] McNamara and all of his brainchilds, come up here, and he said everything is going to work out fine and everybody followed him. Look what a mess we got into in Southeast Asia.
    • 1995, Daniel C[lement] Dennett, “Threads of Actuality in Design Space”, in Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, part I (Starting in the Middle), page 144:
      Not only all your children and your children’s children, but all your brainchildren and your brainchildren’s brainchildren must grow from the common stock of Design elements, genes and memes, that have so far been accumulated and conserved by the inexorable lifting algorithms, the ramps and cranes and cranes-atop-cranes of natural selection and its products.
    • 1995, Anna LaFond, “Contextual Hostility”, in Sustaining Primary Health Care, London: Earthscan Publications, →ISBN, page 57:
      Recent health 'movements' such as the Child Survival Development Revolution and Universal Childhood Immunization, are all brainchilds of international or (Western) national aid institutions.
    • 2000, Daniel C[lement] Dennett, “The Battery”, in John Brockman, editor, The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2,000 Years, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN, page 74:
      Electricity powers all the sensors (cameras, microphones, accelerometers, radio receivers, collision detectors, etc.) and effectors (motors, solenoids, switches) of our robotic artifacts, and even if these brainchildren of ours can be made to live off sunlight (or plutonium), they will need batteries to store that energy until it is required.
    • 2005, Tony Judt, “The Politics of Stability”, in Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945, London: Pimlico, Random House, published 2007, →ISBN, part 2 (Prosperity and Its Discontents: 1953–1971), page 244:
      But even though the Pleven Plan was the brainchild of a French prime minister, public debate had revealed the extent of French reluctance to countenance German rearmament under any conditions.
    • 2007, Rod Long, “Sussex-by-the-Sea”, in South Coast Saunter: Part One—‘Aspirations’, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Vanguard Press, Pegasus Elliot MacKenzie Publishers, →ISBN, page 278:
      At the extreme end of the promenade, backing on to the river, was a small funfair. Edward had informed us earlier that this had been in existence since 1929 and had been one of the very early brainchilds of Sir Billy Butlin.
    • 2014, Richard W. Hartel, AnnaKate Hartel, “Everlasting Gobstoppers and Atomic Fireballs”, in Candy Bites: The Science of Sweets, New York, N.Y.: Copernicus Books, Springer, →ISBN, page 183:
      The Everlasting Gobstopper, a jawbreaker that changes colors and flavors, was the brainchild of Roald Dahl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964. They were intended as poor kids candy since they magically kept regenerating, no matter how long you sucked on them.
    • 2022 October 19, “Network News: Two New Walsall-Wolverhampton Stations Planned to Open in 2024”, in Rail, number 968, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14:
      Their joint cost is £54 million, and the scheme is the brainchild of the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Usage notes

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Chiefly used in the form “the brainchild of [a person or group of people, an organization, etc.]”.

Translations

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Verb

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brainchild (third-person singular simple present brainchilds, present participle brainchilding, simple past and past participle brainchilded)

  1. (transitive, rare) To think up (an idea or innovation); to come up with.
    Coordinate terms: brainstorm, ideate
    • 2015, Mary Lindemann, The Merchant Republics:
      John Law brainchilded the establishment of a national bank to expedite and secure the creation of credit.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “brainchild, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “brainchild, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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