highbrow en · ADJ
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.
Meanings
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(derogatory, sometimes) Intellectually stimulating, highly cultured, sophisticated.
“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.”
1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XIV, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:They tend to regard the socialist intellectuals as nothing more than a pernicious bunch of highbrow radicals without appreciating their influence […]
1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 423:highbrow entertainment
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Translations (25)
ca intel·lectual (highly cultured) · es cultivado (highly cultured) · de hochtrabend (highly cultured) · es intelectual (highly cultured) · es culturoso (highly cultured) · de hochgeistig (highly cultured) · it intellettualoide (highly cultured) · de vergeistigt (highly cultured) · pl przeintelektualizowany (highly cultured) · gv ard-inçhynagh (highly cultured) · es cultureta (highly cultured) · bg интелектуален (highly cultured) · pl elitarny (highly cultured) · de anspruchsvoll (highly cultured) · ga ardnósach (highly cultured) · de geistvoll (highly cultured) · de geistreich (highly cultured) · cmn 陽春白雪 /阳春白雪 (highly cultured) · de hochintellektuell (highly cultured) · de hochgestochen (highly cultured) · it intellettuale (highly cultured) · fr intello (highly cultured) · es élite (highly cultured) · de bildungsbürgerlich (highly cultured) · de intellektuell (highly cultured)