barbaricus

Forms

barbaricus (feminine barbarica, neuter barbaricum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βαρβαρικός (barbarikós),^[2][1][3] from βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign”).^[4] Köbler refers it to barbarus.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus,^[5] who uses it jokingly of Roman things as a Greek would see them, as barbaricā lēge, "by barbarian law".^[2] The OLD's first citation is Ennius' ope barbaricā.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means belonging to the world outside Greece and Rome, barbarian, foreign:^[2][6] Ennius has barbarian wealth, a poem of the Catalepton ascribed to Virgil the trophies of a barbarian battle, and Lucan barbarian cavalry wings.^[2][6] Plautus also uses it of Rome or Italy as a Greek would speak of them.^[2] It also means rude, savage or outlandish: in Plautus' Casina a speaker wants things done elegantly and will have none of barbarian blite.^[2] Columella calls a plantation of mixed trees silva barbarica.^[2] As a noun, in post-classical Latin, barbaricum is a foreign land, and Festus says the war cry of an army was called so because barbarians used it.^[6] Stelten gives "foreign, barbarian".^[7] English barbaric came from it through French in the late 15th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus jokingly of Roman law.^[2][5]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of barbarian wealth.^[2]
• 39–65 AD – Lucan of barbarian cavalry.^[6]
• 1st century AD – Columella of a mixed plantation.^[2]
• late 15th century – English barbaric, from Latin, partly through French.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Barbarian, foreign (not Greek or Roman); (jocular) Roman or Italian, as a Greek would say.^[2][6][1][7]
2. Rude, savage, outlandish, barbaric.^[2][6][1]
3. (of a plantation) Mixed.^[2]

Word family

• barbaricarius
• barbaricum

Related words

• barbarus
• English barbaric

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson