lowbrow
UK /ˈləʊbɹaʊ/ · US /ˈloʊbɹaʊ/ adjective, noun
Forms lowbrows low-brow
- adjective Unsophisticated, not intended for an audience of intelligence, education or culture. “The Three Stooges are known for their lowbrow slapstick humor consisting of foolish action for the masses.”
- noun (countable) Someone or something of low education or culture.
- noun (uncountable, art) An underground populist visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles area in the late 1960s, inspired by comics, punk music, graffiti, etc.
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Etymology
A bahuvrihi compound of low + brow. An Americanism whose first use appears c. 1902. Refers to the (by that time discredited) pseudoscience of phrenology, which suggested that a person of low intelligence and sophistication would possess a lower brow-line than someone of greater intelligence and sophistication.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “lowbrow”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details