Highbrow

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Signifying an inclination towards academic and artistic interests Suggesting a mindset that appreciates cultural refinement and intellectualism Referring to people or preferences that emphasize elevated tastes in literature and the arts
2. Characterizing attitudes or tastes considered scholarly and refined, often associated with academic or artistic sophistication
3. Relating to preferences or people exhibiting cultivated, often exclusive, interests in literature, art, or thinking

Etymology: The idea behind "highbrow" rests on a pseudoscience. In the 19th century, phrenology claimed that a person's character and intellect could be read from the shape of the skull, and it was widely believed that a clever, cultivated person had a higher, more prominent brow than someone less refined. "High" and "brow" were thus joined to describe a supposedly superior forehead, long before the words took on their current sense. The compound first appears in print in 1875. By then phrenology had already fallen into disrepute as a science, but the picture of a lofty forehead signalling a lofty mind lingered in the language. The sense shifted from the physical feature to the mind itself, so that a "highbrow" came to mean someone, or something, marked by intellectual sophistication and refined tastes. The word is a plain compound of "high" and "brow", with no foreign borrowing involved. Its literal meaning, a raised brow, is now almost forgotten, which is why it can sound faintly ironic to modern ears, even though the term is used without mockery in most contexts.

Synonyms: cultured, sophisticated, intellectual

Antonyms: lowbrow, unsophisticated