Not intellectual or cultured; appealing to popular or unsophisticated taste. Lacking in refinement, education, or cultural sophistication.
Coined in the 1900s from phrenological theories that associated a low forehead with less intelligence, contrasting with 'highbrow' (intellectual). The term became popular in American cultural criticism to distinguish between different levels of cultural sophistication.
Picture the three bears of culture: highbrow (intellectual), middlebrow (moderately sophisticated), and lowbrow (popular/simple). It's not really about foreheads - it's about taste! Reality TV is lowbrow, opera is highbrow. Neither is necessarily better, just different audiences!
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