Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, "highbrow" is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The term, first recorded in 1875, draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, which teaches that people with large foreheads are more intelligent.[1] The term is deeply connected to hierarchical racial theories from the 19th century. The German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) argued "for human diversity alonglines of racial differences as evidenced by skulls shapes and measurements. [...] One metric of Blumenbachs classification was the line of the forehead, said to be higher among 'Caucasians' and lower among 'Mongolians' and 'Ethiopians' and this is the origin of the still common usage of 'highbrow' and 'lowbrow' ".[2]
- ^ Hendrickson, Robert (1997). Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 9780965379458.
Dr. Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828), founder of the 'science' of phrenology, gave support to the old folk notion that people with big foreheads have more brains. The theory, later discredited, led to the expression 'highbrow' for an intellectual, which is first recorded in 1875.
- ^ Tchen, John Kuo Wei; Yeats, Dylan, eds. (2014). Yellow peril! an archive of anti-Asian fear (1. publ ed.). London: Verso. p. 130. ISBN 978-1-78168-124-4.
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