βάρβαρος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /bár.ba.ros/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈβar.βa.ros/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈvar.va.ros/^[1]

Forms

βᾰ́ρβᾰρος (bárbaros) m or f (neuter βᾰ́ρβᾰρον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an onomatopoeic reduplicated formation, imitating speech that cannot be understood, and at first referred to the language of foreigners.^[2][3][1] It matches post-Vedic Sanskrit बर्बर (barbara, “stammering”), also a name for non-Aryan peoples.^[2][3] Comparable formations exist in other Indo-European languages, such as Latin balbus (“stammering”) and Lithuanian balbė́ti (“to babble”).^[1][2] The Mycenaean name or word pa-pa-ro may be the same word.^[4][1]

A Sumerian or Babylonian origin, from Sumerian barbar (“foreigner”) or Akkadian barbaru, has been proposed,^[3] but Beekes rejects it, and Rosół points out that the Akkadian word means “wolf” and that no Sumerian word for “foreigner” of this form exists.^[2][5]

Latin borrowed it as barbarus.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer does not have the simple word, but he calls the Carians βαρβαρόφωνοι, “of barbarous speech”.^[7][3][2] The simple word is first found in Heraclitus, who speaks of “barbarian souls”.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

It first meant anyone who did not speak Greek, and after the Persian Wars especially the Medes and Persians, as in Aeschylus' Persians and Herodotus.^[7][8] Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle set Greeks against barbarians;^[7] Aristotle holds that barbarian and slave are by nature the same.^[7] Of speech it means foreign and unintelligible, and Aristophanes uses it of the twitter of birds.^[7][4] As a feminine noun, ἡ βάρβαρος, it is the barbarian land.^[7][8] From the Classical period it also meant uncultured, rude and brutal, as in Aristophanes and Demosthenes.^[7][8] Grammarians used it of incorrect Greek, whence βαρβαρισμός (barbarismós).^[7][2]

In later Greek it could mean non-Roman as well as non-Greek, in Polybius and Plutarch,^[8] and Jewish writers in the Septuagint call the Greeks barbarians.^[7][9] Paul uses it of a speaker whose language is not understood, and pairs “Greeks and barbarians” as all mankind;^[10] BDAG warns that English barbarian is too negative a rendering there.^[10]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for uncouth, cruel people and especially for the Turks.^[11][6] In Modern Greek βάρβαρος (várvaros) means uncivilized, crude and cruel, and, of antiquity, non-Greek.^[12] Through Latin barbarus it gave the European words, including English barbarian;^[6] Arabic barbar, the source of English Berber, may also come from it.^[1][13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad calls the Carians βαρβαρόφωνοι.^[7][3]
• 6th–5th century BC – Heraclitus speaks of “barbarian souls”.^[7][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of the Persians.^[7][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for rude and uncultured.^[7][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle says barbarian and slave are the same by nature.^[7][4]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of peoples who are neither Greek nor Roman.^[8][4]
• 1st century AD – Paul pairs “Greeks and barbarians”.^[10]
• 1100–1669 – Medieval vernacular Greek uses it of the Turks.^[11]
• 1820 – English Berber is first recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Non-Greek, foreign; as a noun, οἱ βάρβαροι, the barbarians, especially the Persians.^[7][8]
2. Of speech: foreign, unintelligible.^[7][4]
3. (feminine noun) ἡ βάρβαρος, the barbarian land.^[7][8]
4. Uncultured, rude, brutal.^[7][8]
5. (grammar) Of Greek: incorrect.^[7][4]
6. (Koine) Neither Greek nor Roman; in Jewish writers, Greek.^[8][9]
7. (medicine) A name for several plasters.^[7]

Word family

• βαρβαρίζω (barbarízō)
• βαρβαρικός (barbarikós)
• βαρβαρισμός (barbarismós)
• βαρβαρόομαι (barbaróomai)
• βαρβαρόφωνος (barbaróphōnos)
• ἐκβαρβαρόω (ekbarbaróō)
• μιξοβάρβαρος (mixobárbaros)
• ὑποβάρβαρος (hupobárbaros)
• φιλοβάρβαρος (philobárbaros)

Related words

• Latin barbarus
• English barbarian
• English Berber

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
6. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com