highbrow

adj. also high·browed (-broud')
Of, relating to, or being highly cultured or intellectual: They only attend highbrow events such as the ballet or the opera.

n.
One who possesses or affects a high degree of culture or learning.

highbrowism high'brow'ism n.

adjective

Appealing to or engaging the intellect: cerebral, intellectual, sophisticated, thoughtful. See thoughts.

Origin: 1903

Americans can claim credit for both highbrow and lowbrow, the upper and lower levels of culture and cultivation. Highbrow seems to have come first, most likely around 1903, but lowbrow is close on its heels. In 1906 we have examples of both. That year the writer O. Henry refers to "the $250 that I screwed out of the high-browed and esteemed B. Merwin during your absence." As for lowbrow, we find it in S. Ford's Shorty McCabe: "The spaghetti works was in full blast, with a lot of husky low-brows goin' in and out." In Collier's the next year is a reference to "the overwhelming majority of Low Brows, who never read 'Peer Gynt.'" And in the Saturday Evening Post for 1908, we see highbrows again: "It takes all sorts of men to make a party, and Mr. Hearst apparently led in a few prize-fighters with the other high-brows and reformers he accumulated."

From the start, both terms were applied with tongue in cheek. They referred to the discredited phrenological notion that a person of superior intellect and culture would have a high forehead while an ignorant boor would have a low one.

A 1916 reviewer in The Nation took the distinction more seriously. Highbrow and lowbrow, he said, "stand for more genuine differences than Democrat and Republican. The one class has ideals, but no experience; it has flowered in an unfruitful transcendentalism. The other class has experience, but no ideals; its finished product is the millionaire. Each class looks with contempt, or rather with indifference, upon the other." The reviewer lamented this split, but in fact the two extremes of American culture seem to have prevented either side from taking itself too seriously. In the rest of the twentieth century both highbrows and lowbrows have had such success that American science, scholarship, and art on the one hand and practical inventions and popular culture on the other have swept throughout the world.

---

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - intellektuel, akademisk, åndssnob
n. - intellektuel, åndsaristokrat, åndssnob

Nederlands (Dutch)
(semi-)intel- lectueel, geleerd, klassiek, zweverig

Français (French)
adj. - intellectuel
n. - intellectuel

Deutsch (German)
n. - Intellektueller
adj. - intellektuell, hochgestochen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (καθομ.) κουλτουριάρης, διανοούμενος
adj. - διανοουμενίστικος, πολυσπούδαστος, κουλτουριάρικος, κουλτουριάρης

Italiano (Italian)
intellettuale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - pessoa (f) intelectual
adj. - intelectual

Русский (Russian)
человек, претендующий на интеллектуальность, далекий от жизни ученый, высокомерный

Español (Spanish)
adj. - intelectual
n. - intelectual

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - intellektuell, intelligenssnobb, kultursnobb
adj. - intellektuell, kulturell, snobbig, bildad

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
自炫博学的, 不切实际的, 知识分子的, 知识份子, 卖弄知识的人

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 自炫博學的, 不切實際的, 知識份子的
n. - 知識份子, 賣弄知識的人

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 지식인의, 지식인인 체하는
n. - 지식인, 교양인, 지식인인 체하는 사람

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 知識人, インテリ, インテリぶる人
adj. - 知識人の

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الرفيع الثقافه أو الواسع العلم تستعمل على سبيل التهكم عادة (صفه) خاص بذوي الثقافه الرفيعه, رفيع الثقافه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮ידען, משכיל‬
n. - ‮איש-רוח, סנוב‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.