barbaric

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English barbarik,^[2] borrowed from Old French barbarique (“of barbarous kind”)^[3][4][5][6] or directly borrowed from Latin barbaricus (“foreign, strange, outlandish”);^[4][7][8][9] the OED thinks that in the Wycliffite Bible it may come directly from Latin.^[3] The Latin adjective is from Ancient Greek βαρβαρικός (barbarikós, “like a foreigner”),^[3][4][5] from βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, rude; non-Greek”) and the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[8][10] According to Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, the Greek word was an onomatopoeic word that mocked foreign speech as babbling or stuttering;^[10] Klein compares Sanskrit बर्बर (barbara, “stammering”) and traces both to an imitative base Proto-Indo-European *barb- (“to stammer”).^[5] The same Greek word lies behind barbarian, barbarous and rhubarb.^[6][10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A barbarian, as a noun: 1388, in the later version of the Wycliffite Bible (1 Corinthians 14:11), where the Latin has barbarus and the earlier version barbar.^[3][2] As an adjective, uncivilized or uncultured: 1490, in Caxton's translation of the Eneydos.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Greek barbaros first referred to speech, as in barbarophōnos, speaking a foreign language, and it took on the sense "rude, uncivilized" especially after the wars with the Persians;^[10] English inherited that sense.^[10] The English noun, meaning a person who speaks another language, did not outlast Middle English.^[9][2] The adjective meant uncultured, uncivilized and savage from the late 15th century.^[3][9][4] From 1667, in Milton's "Barbaric pearl and gold" in Paradise Lost, it described the style or taste of barbarians, as opposed to that of civilized ages;^[3][9] Etymonline dates the meaning "pertaining to or characteristic of barbarians" to the 1660s.^[4] In 1849 the historian Grote used it in the old Greek sense, non-Greek or foreign,^[3][9] which Hoad dates to the 19th century.^[6] Merriam-Webster also records its use for an artistic style without restraint, as in a barbaric use of colour.^[8]

Timeline

• 1388 – noun, a barbarian, a speaker of another language (obsolete).^[3][2]
• 1490 – uncivilized, uncultured, savage.^[3]
• 1667 – characteristic of barbarians or their art.^[3][9]
• 1849 – non-Greek, foreign, of peoples in antiquity.^[3][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or typical of barbarians.^[8][11]
2. Extremely cruel or brutal: a barbaric attack on a defenceless village.^[11][9]
3. Primitive or unsophisticated; uncivilized.^[11][9][8]
4. Of an artistic style, marked by a lack of restraint or by unchecked exuberance: barbaric splashes of scarlet and gold.^[8][9]

Word family

• barbarically

Related words

• barbarian
• barbarous
• barbarism
• barbarity
• rhubarb
• Berber

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins