highbrow

English

Etymology

A compound of the words high +‎ brow, first recorded usage in 1875. Referring to the (by that time discredited) science of phrenology, which suggested that a person of intelligence and sophistication would possess a higher brow-line than someone of lesser intelligence and sophistication.

Adjective

highbrow

1. (sometimes derogatory) Intellectually stimulating, highly cultured, sophisticated.

   Antonym: lowbrow

   Coordinate terms: middlebrow, no-brow

   highbrow entertainment

   • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XIV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:

     “He's so darn afraid you'll be offended if he smokes. You scare him. Every time he speaks of the weather you jump him because he ain't talking about poetry or Gertie—Goethe?—or some other highbrow junk. You've got him so leery he scarcely dares to come here.”

Translations

highly cultured

• Bulgarian: интелектуален (intelektualen)
• Catalan: intel·lectual (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 陽春白雪／阳春白雪 (zh) (yángchūnbáixuě)

• French: intello (fr)
• German: (of a person or thing; positive) intellektuell (de); (of a person or thing; more negative) hochintellektuell, vergeistigt (de); (of a thing also; positive) anspruchsvoll (de), geistreich (de), geistvoll (de); (of a thing also; more negative) hochgeistig, hochgestochen, hochtrabend (de); (negative of a person, in particular German context) bildungsbürgerlich
• Irish: ardnósach
• Italian: intellettuale (it), (pejorative) intellettualoide
• Manx: ard-inçhynagh
• Spanish: intelectual (es), cultivado (es), élite (es)

Noun

highbrow (plural highbrows)

1. (sometimes derogatory) A cultured or learned person or thing.

   Synonyms: intellectual, scholar

   Antonym: lowbrow

   Coordinate term: middlebrow

Translations

intellectual — see also intellectual

• Bulgarian: интелектуалец f (intelektualec)
• French: intello (fr) m or f
• German: Intellektueller (de) m, Intellektuelle (de) f
• Portuguese: intelectual (pt) m or f

Further reading

• “highbrow”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• highbrow on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• ESC, 2003. Re:highbrow, middlebrow, lowbrow, The Phrase finder.
• Robert Hendrickson, 1997. Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (New York: Facts on File)