egghead

[eg-hed]

noun

Slang: Usually Disparaging.

1. an intellectual.

egghead

/ ˈɛɡˌhɛd /

noun

1. informal,  an intellectual; highbrow

Sensitive Note

This term is usually used with disparaging intent, implying that an intellectual is out-of-touch with ordinary people. Though first used by journalists to insult editorial writers, egghead was popularized as an epithet of Adlai Stevenson, the 1952 Democratic presidential candidate.

Word History and Origins

Origin of egghead¹

1915–20; egg ¹ + head; by analogy with someone who is bald

Example Sentences

And finally, they’ll be able to answer a question that Ivy League eggheads have been pondering for a century.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

However, she says it soon transpired "they weren't quite the eggheads we thought they were".

Read more on BBC

Which is a reminder even to the eggheads that no one has ever won the Ryder Cup on a spreadsheet.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He wants to claim that his supposedly big and beautiful bill is the most popular legislation in history and that he’s the greatest president ever, and doesn’t want to hear egghead historians tell him otherwise.

Read more on Salon

Last, it essentially represents a bunch of elite eggheads saying “trust us, we’re different now” when no one trusts them.

Read more on Los Angeles Times