barbarismus

Forms

barbarismus m (genitive barbarismī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek βαρβαρισμός (barbarismós, “use of a foreign tongue”).^[2][3][4][1] The Greek noun belongs with βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “non-Greek, speaking unintelligibly”).^[4] Wiktionary notes that it first referred to a feature of non-native, “barbarian” speech.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wiktionary gives the Rhetorica ad Herennium as its first attestation,^[1] and Lewis & Short cite it from that work (4.12.17).^[3] It named a fault of speech, especially in pronunciation.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Gellius remarked that the word was not in use before the Augustan period, and that Nigidius said rusticus sermo (“rustic speech”) instead.^[3] He also wrote that he had not yet found either soloecismus or barbarismus in reputable Greek authors.^[5] Quintilian discusses barbarisms at length in the first book of his work on oratory.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it kept the sense of a faulty expression, in Latin and in other languages, and was also used more broadly for metaplasm, a change in the shape of a word.^[6] By metonymy Barbarismus was the name of the third book of Donatus' grammar, the book that begins with this word.^[6] English took it over, through French barbarisme, in the mid-15th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 50 BC – Köbler's earliest record is in Caesar.^[4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian discusses barbarisms in the first book of his work on oratory.^[3][4]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius notes that the word was not used before the Augustan period.^[3][4]
• 639–709 AD – Aldhelm uses it of faulty Latin.^[6][4]
• mid-15th century – English borrows it, through French, as barbarism.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A barbarism, an impropriety of speech, especially in pronunciation.^[2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) Metaplasm, an alteration in the form of a word.^[6]
3. (Medieval Latin) The third book of Donatus' grammar, named from its first word.^[6]

Related words

• barbarus
• soloecismus
• English barbarism

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com