Pixies and Pixels

Were you a Brownie? Were you ever a pixie? Ever been pixilated? What is the difference between a pixie and a pixel?
 
Pixie
 
The word pixie is a word of obscure origin, first seen around 1630. The word’s original home in the far southwest of England suggests that the word might have a Celtic origin. Or, perhaps it is from a Scandinavian word pyske (small fairy). The word pixie is associated with the fairy rings of old pastures where they are supposed to have danced by moonlight.
 
The earliest reference to pixie is ‘pixy-path’ (bewilderment); i.e., a path on which one is led astray by pixies. Other pixie-related terms include pixie-puff, a species of fungus, and pixie-purse, the egg case of a shark, skate, or ray found washed up on the shore.
 
To be pixilated, a term first seen in 1848, means to be mildly insane, bewildered, or tipsy.
 
In 1865, Juliana Horatia Ewing wrote a popular book, The Brownies, based on Scottish folklore figures. This name was adopted in 1919 by Juliette Gordon for the lowest level in the Girl Guides (founded in 1909). Pixies, Elves, Gnomes, and so on were the names given to the small groups (the Sixes) of each Brownie Unit. Today, these Sixes usually are named after various woodland animals.
 
A brownie or broonie, a Scots term from Gaelic brunaidh, is a household spirit who comes at night to perform various household tasks. Brownies are mischievous and love to pull pranks. Traditionally, brownies are male, completely covered in brown hair, and ugly.
 
How did the word brownie shift in meaning from an ugly brown-haired man to a pre-teen girl in a brown uniform? Let that be another story.
 
By the way, speaking of folklore, although similar, pixies are not to be confused with fairies and elves. http://www.davidtickner.ca/blog/fairy
 
Pixel
 
The word pixel has its origins in the word pic (from 1884), a shortening of the word picture. In the 1930s, the word pic was short for motion picture. Also, in the 1930s, the word pix appears as the plural of pic.
 
The word pixel, meaning a small, square, single-colored display element, many of which comprise an image, is from 1969 and was coined to describe the photographic elements of a television image. The word pixel comprises pix + el, the first syllable of element.
 
The term pixelation, from 1991, means a graphic display effect in which all the pixels of the image are visible; e.g., the image at the beginning of this article is a pixelation of a pixie.
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(folklore)
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