Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a pseudo-intellectual; a derog. description, often of quite genuine, if pretentious, intellectuals, who offend their perhaps less academic critics.

1961		H. Ellison Rockabilly (1963) 79: There is a great deal of difference between a truly ‘hip’ person [...] and a hippie. It is no coincidence that hippie rhymes with chippie. A hippie is a pseudo.
1973		D. Williamson What If You Died Tomorrow (1977) I i: No one much of note left up there now [...] A handful of the old guard and thousands of pseudos.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 151: Bikers, druggies, drongos, pseuds, freaks and students.
1999		Observer 17 Oct. 31: Spoof documentary about a camera-clicking pseud.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 419: She wanted to carry on mingling with the pseuds and dish-lickers.