lowbrow

Meaning

Adj

Unsophisticated, not intended for an audience of intelligence, education or culture.

Noun

1. (countable) Someone or something of low education or culture.
2. (uncountable) An underground populist visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles area in the late 1960s, inspired by comics, punk music, graffiti, etc.

Synonyms

lowbrowed

uncultivated

anti-intellectual

philistine

of little education

shake and bake

ham

rough around the edges

play

uncultured person

low-tech

Translations

béotien

philistin

unbedarft

ilote

kültürsüz

Kulturbanause

μικρής μορφώσεως

inculte

navet

béotienne

cabotinage

peu intellectuel

peu compliqué

peu évolué

nanar

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈloʊbɹaʊ/

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.