barbarian

Meanings

Adjective

• Relating to people, countries or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.

Noun

• A non-Greek or a non-Roman.
• An uncivilized or uncultured person, originally compared to the hellenistic Greco-Roman civilisation; often associated with fighting or other such shows of strength.
• A person destitute of culture; a Philistine.
• Someone from a developing country or backward culture.
• A warrior, clad in fur or leather, associated with sword and sorcery stories.
• A cruel, savage, brutal person; one without pity or humanity.
• A foreigner, especially with barbaric qualities as in the above definitions.

Related

Similar words

• barbaric
• barbarous

Origin

• From Middle English barbarian, borrowed from Medieval Latin barbarinus ("Berber, pagan, Saracen, barbarian"), from Latin barbaria ("foreign country"), from barbarus, from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος ("foreign, non-Greek, strange"), possibly onomatopoeic (mimicking foreign languages, akin to English blah blah). Cognate to Sanskrit बर्बर ("barbarian, non-Aryan, stammering, blockhead").