sb. and a. Also 6–7 Vandale, 7 Vandall. [ad. L. Vandalus, pl. Vandali (also -alii, -ili, -ilii, -uli), whence also F. Vandale, It., Sp., Pg. Vandalo. Trevisa, in his translation of Higden (1387), uses the form Wandales.
The different Latin forms indicate a variation of suffix in the Germanic stem, viz. *Wandal-, -il-, -ul-. The second of these is represented by OE. Wendlas (pl.), ON. Vendill, designating inhabitants of the north of Jutland.]
A. sb. 1. A member of a Germanic tribe, which in the fourth and fifth centuries invaded Western Europe, and established settlements in various parts of it, esp. in Gaul and Spain, finally in 428–9 migrating to Northern Africa. Chiefly in pl.
In the year 455 their king Genseric led a marauding expedition against Rome, which he took and completely sacked. The Vandals were overthrown by Belisarius in 533 at the battle of Tricamarum.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb). I. 283. Chaunges … caused … by the commynge of the Gothes and Vandales, and other Barbarians into Italy.
1596. Spenser, St. Irel., Wks. (Globe), 627/2. The coming downe of the Gothes, the Hunnes, and the Vandals.
1605. Verstegan, Dec. Intell., ii. 44. The Gothes and the Vandalles, beeing also a people of the septentrional partes of Germanie.
1647–8. Cotterell, trans. Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 3. Famous incursions of the Vandals.
1694. Dryden, To Sir G. Kneller, 47. Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude Northern race, Did all the matchless Monuments deface.
a. 1743. Savage, Of Public Spirit, Wks. 1777, II. 141. Rome all subdu’d, yet Vandals vanquish’d Rome.
1788. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xli. IV. 146. The certain intelligence that the Vandal [sc. Gelimer] had fled to the inaccessible country of the Moors.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIV. 266/1. The Slavonian tribes were subject to the Teutonic Vandals, who are often confounded with the Wends.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 58/2. There does not seem to be in the story of the capture of Rome by the Vandals any justification for the charge of wilful and objectless destruction of public buildings.
2. transf. One who acts like a Vandal or barbarian; a wilful or ignorant destroyer of anything beautiful, venerable, or worthy of preservation.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 50. For who would Rob them but Goths and Vandalls.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 696. At length Erasmus … Stemm’d the wild torrent of a barb’rous age, And drove those holy Vandals [i.e., monks] off the stage.
1780. Cowper, On Burning Ld. Mansfield’s Library, 1. The Vandals of our isle … Have burnt to dust a nobler pile Than ever Roman saw!
1801. Helen M. Williams, Mann. & Opin. Fr. Rep., II. xxxv. 177. The monuments … which have escaped the fury of our modern Vandals [i.e., Jacobins].
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 189. A horrid Vandal,—but his money Will buy a glorious coat of arms.
1895. Suffling, Land of Broads, 85. Stained glass, which those narrow-minded Vandals, the Puritans, took great pains to destroy.
B. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to the Vandals (or a Vandal).
Vandal war, the war waged by the Roman Empire against the Vandals in Africa, 532–546.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 98. Procopius, in the fourth booke of the Vandale Warre.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxiii. (1787), III. 346. The warlike tyrant is supposed to have shed more Vandal blood by the hand of the executioner, than in the field of battle. Ibid. (1788), xli. IV. 152. The chariots of state which had been used by the Vandal queen.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIV. 266/1. All the names of the Vandal kings are Teutonic.
1879. Lumby, Introd. to Higden (Rolls), VII. p. xx. Gregory [VI.] appealed to the emperor for help, and when an excuse of the Vandal war was made by him, the pope took the field himself against the robbers.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIV. 58/2. The Vandal occupation of this great city [i.e., Carthage] … lasted for ninety-four years.
2. Acting like a Vandal in the wilful or ignorant destruction of things of beauty or historic interest; recklessly or ruthlessly destructive; barbarous, rude, uncultured.
1700. Dryden, Prol. [Fletcher’s Pilgrim], 35. Our bold Britton … Invades the Psalms with Rhymes, and leaves no room For any Vandal Hopkins yet to come.
1798. W. T. Fitzgerald, Misc. Poems (1801), 99. Though Europe suffers, to her foul disgrace, This second Inroad of the Vandal Race.
1889. Science-Gossip, XXV. 34. Vandal naturalists.
1892. T. A. Cook, Old Touraine (1894), II. 39. A certain vandal senator … irreparably destroyed a great part of the old buildings.
3. Characterized by vandalism or lack of culture; vandalic, vandalistic.
1752. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 443. Some good tombs…, and a very Vandal one.
1857. Ld. Granville, in Life (1905), I. x. 260. They … are against any Vandal destruction of towns, palaces, etc.
1863. Mary Howitt, trans. F. Bremer’s Greece & Greeks, II. xii. 24. Masses of marble fragments and stones show what a work of Vandal desolation has been here.
Hence Vandalled pa. pple., over-run or devastated by the Vandals.
1648. Winyard, Midsummer-Moon, 4. The whole University resembles Greece over-run by Turkes, or Italy Goth’d and Vandald.
