lowbrow adj : characteristic of a person who is not cultivated or does not have intellectual tastes; "lowbrow tastes" [syn: lowbrowed, uncultivated] n : a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits [syn: philistine]

English

Etymology

From low and brow, Americanism, circa 1902. Referring to the (by that time discredited) science of phrenology, which suggested that a person of low intelligence and sophistication would posses a lower brow-line than someone of greater intelligence and sophistication.

Adjective

1. 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

1. Someone or something of low education or culture.

Antonyms

• highbrow

Related terms

• highbrow
• middlebrow

References

• ESC, 2003. Re:highbrow, middlebrow, lowbrow, The Phrase finder.
• Robert Hendrickson, 1997. Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (New York: Facts on File)

Lowbrow may refer to:

• Lowbrow (art movement)
• Low culture, a derogatory term for some forms of popular culture
• Lowbrow, the original title of the pilot of the Cartoon Network series Megas XLR

Gothic, Philistine, barbarous, bookless, dabbler, deceived, dilettante, dunce, fool, functionally illiterate, grammarless, greenhorn, greeny, heathen, hoodwinked, ignoramus, ill-educated, illiterate, illiterati, know-nothing, led astray, middlebrow, misinformed, misinstructed, mistaught, no scholar, nonintellectual, pagan, puddinghead, rude, tenderfoot, unbooked, unbookish, unbooklearned, unbriefed, uncultivated, uncultured, unedified, uneducated, unerudite, unguided, uninstructed, unintellectual, unintelligentsia, unlearned, unlettered, unliterary, unread, unrefined, unscholarly, unschooled, unstudious, untaught, untutored