tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5145200404704322540.post76443077572196827..comments2023-10-11T06:50:10.494-04:00Comments on The Glass-Bottom Blog: Melancholy noise; swiving; middlebrowsZedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10623092831367861959noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5145200404704322540.post-21652085255485592752011-01-12T16:07:02.930-05:002011-01-12T16:07:02.930-05:00Wikipedia footnote: Hendrickson, Robert (1997). En...Wikipedia footnote: Hendrickson, Robert (1997). Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins. New York: Facts on File. "New York Sun reporter Will Irvin popularized 'highbrow,' and its opposite 'lowbrow' in 1902, basing his creation on the wrongful notion that people with high foreheads have bigger brains and are more intelligent and intellectual than those with low foreheads. At first the term was complimentary, but 'highbrow' came to be at best a neutral word."Zedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10623092831367861959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5145200404704322540.post-52483394598000129712011-01-12T15:57:11.396-05:002011-01-12T15:57:11.396-05:00Good question! Here is a suggestive Google scholar...Good question! Here is a suggestive Google scholar snippet -- "Both terms have disturbing origins in the racist pseudo-science phrenology, which privileged the typically high brow of Caucasians" -- but I can't access the full article and for all I know they're making it up. The OED example seems to be prizefighters vs. highbrows rather than a parallel... I would be greatly surprised if there weren't a phrenological link here, I remember seeing a cartoon in the American political press in the late 19th showing Anglo-Saxon vs. Hibernian features with the crests in remarkably different places. But this implication is not obvious in any OED entries. <br /><br />I think middlebrow is _after_ lowbrow.Zedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10623092831367861959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5145200404704322540.post-78242096296865595762011-01-12T15:39:40.486-05:002011-01-12T15:39:40.486-05:00Wait, what IS the standard intellectual history/us...Wait, what IS the standard intellectual history/usage line on the -brow formation? Your graph is what I would expect, namely back-formation from HIGHbrow, which would be poking fun at eugenicists who think head shape makes them elite? With middlebrow as a formation leading from highbrow, and then low- as the inevitable end point? I am not sure about the eugenics/phrenology link, the OED examples are sort of drawn from boxing, but doesn't it seem like there must be a connection of that sort?Jenny Davidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02295436498255927522noreply@blogger.com