a. [f. L. barbar-us, a. Gr. βάρβαρος + -OUS: preceded in use by the simple BARBAR(E, without suffix. The Gr. word had probably a primary reference to speech, and is compared with L. balbus stammering. The sense-development in ancient times was (with the Greeks) ‘foreign, non-Hellenic,’ later ‘outlandish, rude, brutal’; (with the Romans) ‘not Latin nor Greek,’ then ‘pertaining to those outside the Roman empire’; hence ‘uncivilized, uncultured,’ and later ‘non-Christian,’ whence ‘Saracen, heathen’; and generally ‘savage, rude, savagely cruel, inhuman.’ The later uses occur first in Eng., the L. and Gr. senses appearing only in translators or historians.]
1. Of language: a. orig. Not Greek; subseq. not Greek nor Latin; hence, not classical or pure (Latin or Greek), abounding in ‘barbarisms.’ Hence, b. Unpolished, without literary culture; pertaining to an illiterate people.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 2. My wytte is grosse … and my tonge very barbarouse.
1538. Starkey, England, 193. To see al our law … wryten in thys barbarouse langage [i.e., old French].
1547. Boorde, Introd. Knowl., 221. Barbarouse Latin doth alter from trew Latins.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (1863), 7. Avoidyng barbarous ryming.
1600. Dymmok, Treat. Irel. (1843), 47. Barbarous for the Latyn but cyuill for the sence.
1611. Cotgr., Narquois, the gibbridge, or barbarous language used among them [Gipsies].
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., x. (1627), 147. Will still write false Latine, barbarous phrase.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 169, ¶ 6. From which [Latin] … the present European tongues are nothing more than barbarous degenerations.
1788. Reid, Aristot. Log., iv. ii. 74. The mystery contained in the vowels of those barbarous words [Barbara, Celarent, etc.].
1791. Cowper, Iliad, II. 1063. The Carians, people of a barbarous speech.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, 9. A wholly barbarous use of the word, barbarous in a double sense, for it is not English, and it is bad Greek.
2. Of people: Speaking a foreign language, foreign, outlandish; orig. non-Hellenic; then, not Roman, living outside the Roman Empire; sometimes, not Christian, heathen. (Often with a glance at sense 3.)
1542. Udall, Apoph., 285 a. Bearyng rewle emong the Barbarous, that is to weete, the Portugalles.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Wks., Gloss., The barbarous auctours vse alcohol … for moost fyne poudre.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 4. The Scythian counted the Athenian, whom he did not vnderstand, barbarous. Ibid., Acts xxviii. 2. The barbarous people shewed vs no little kindnesse.
1713. Pope, Windsor For., 365. Let barb’rous Ganges arm a servile train.
3. Uncultured, uncivilized, unpolished; rude, rough, wild, savage. (Said of men, their manners, customs, products.) The usual opposite of civilized.
1538. Starkey, England, 117. A gret rudenes and a barbarouse custume usyd wyth us.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, viii. 96. Let vs come to Lawes, for euen the barbarousest people had of them.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., IV. i. 52. Barbarous Caues, Where manners nere were preach’d.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. xiii. 214. A barbarous and vnciuil place.
1658. Flecknoe, Epigr., 67. Would tame fierce lions, and civilize barbarousest savages.
1780. Harris, Philol. Enq. (1841), 514. Italy at the beginning of her history was barbarous.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, ii. 105. An uncultured semi-barbarous son of Nature.
4. Savage in infliction of cruelty, cruelly harsh.
[1538. Starkey, England, iv. 107. Tyrannys and Barbarus pryncys.]
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 378. Thou art a Romaine, be not barbarous.
c. 1620. Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 154. This barbarous villaine did no mercy show.
c. 1660. Bk. Com. Prayer, K. Chas. Mart., A constant meek suffering of all barbarous indignities.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XVIII. xii. It would be barbarous to part Tom and the girl.
1876. Mozley, Univ. Serm., v. 111. The barbarous aspect of war.
5. Like the speech of barbarians; harsh-sounding, rudely or coarsely noisy.
1645. Milton, Sonn., xii. A barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs. Ibid. (1667), P. L., VII. 32. The barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his Revellers.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 253. Innumerable rills … making a barbarous and unpleasant sound.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 24. The music was wild and barbarous.
† 6. = BARBARIC 2. Obs.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., III. 65. The trappings of his horse emboss’d with barbarous gold.
