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

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

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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.

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

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But a significant chunk of the public has been trained not to listen to any such “deep-staters” or Nobel Prize–winning eggheads.

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“We had some real eggheads, and famously, they don’t watch comedy. Then you trample all over their favorite topic” and things can get tense, she says.

Read more on Los Angeles Times