highbrow

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.

highbrow

1. Intellectually stimulating, highly cultured, sophisticated.

• lowbrow

highbrow (plural highbrows)

1. A cultured or learned person or thing; an intellectual or scholar.

• lowbrow
• middlebrow

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