Forms: 4 barberie, 5 barbre, barbarie, -ye, 6 barbery, 5– barbary. [f. a. OF. barbarie, ad. L. barbaria, barbariēs, ‘land of barbarians, barbarism,’ f. barbar-us BARBAROUS. In II. ult f. Arab. Barbar, Berber, applied by the Arab geographers from ancient times to the natives of N. Africa, west and south of Egypt. According to some native lexicographers, of native origin, f. Arab. barbara ‘to talk noisily and confusedly’ (which is not derived from Gr. βάρβαρος); according to others, a foreign word, African, Egyptian, or perh. from Greek. The actual relations (if any) of the Arabic and Gr. words cannot be settled; but in European langs. Barbaria, Barbarie, Barbary, have from the first been treated as identical with L. barbaria, Byzantine Gr. βαρβαρία land of barbarians: see sense 1.]
I. Barbarous nationality, state or speech.
† 1. Foreign nationality; esp. non-Christian, i.e., Saracen or pagan nationality; heathenism. concr. Non-Christian lands. Also attrib. = Paynim. Obs.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter cxiv. 1. In oute-gate of Iraele, Oute of Egipt … Of the folke of barberie.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Man of L. T., 183. Allas, vnto the Barbre nacion I moste goon.
1432–50. trans. Higden (1865), I. 323. Wytlandia is … inhabite with peple of barbre worschippenge ydoles.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxxviii. 263. His fame … come in to hethnes and barbarye.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. xv. 23. Hys hosing schane of wark of Barbary.
1629. Gaule, Pract. The., 39. Not in the Barbary onely of a barbarous World, but in the Greece also of a gracious Church.
† 2. Barbarity, barbarism, barbarousness. Obs.
1564. Becon, Flower Godly Pr. (1844), 42. Nothing but cruel barbary and lion-like fierceness.
a. 1571. Jewell, Serm. bef. Queen (1583). Come to such ignorance and barbarie.
1635. Skidmore, in F. Lee, Valid. Anglic. Ord. (1869), 84. Through tyrannical subjection and mere barbary of their inhabitants.
† 3. Uncultivated speech, as opposed to a classical language or classic diction. Also attrib. Obs.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., 38. The langage rude … The barbary tongue. Ibid., 48. Tolde wyth tongue of barbary, In rude maner.
1608. Tourneur, Rev. Trag., IV. ii. 107. Their common talke is nothing but Barbery Latin.
II. as proper name.
4. The Saracen countries along the north coast of Africa. (The only surviving sense.)
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. ii. 272. From Lisbon, Barbary, and India.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., li. Has justly settled as a local denomination (Barbary) along the northern coast of Africa.
1843. Macaulay, Addison, Ess. (1874), 701. The Polity and Religion of Barbary.
b. attrib., esp. Barbary ape, gum, hen, horse.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 108. Hee will not swagger with a Barbarie Henne.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 227. Which the common people call Barbary Horses.
1611. Markham, Countr. Content, I. v. The Barbary Faulcon, the Merlin and the Hobby.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), II. III. vi. 75. They [the Guinea-hen] are by some called the Barbary-hen.
1849. Browning, Solil. Sp. Cloister, Poems II. 269. As ’twere a Barbary Corsair’s.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 289. Barbary Gum, sometimes called Morocco gum, the product of the Acacia gummifera, imported from Tripoli, etc.
Mod. The only quadrumanous animal found in Europe is the Barbary Ape, of which a colony exists on the rock of Gibraltar.
c. ellipt. † A Barbary horse, a barb. Obs. Also, A kind of fancy pigeon. Cf. BARB sb.3
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., IV. i. Be seen o’ your Barbary often.
1653. J. Hall, Paradoxes, 145. That could outrun a Hart or a Barbary.
1834. R. Mudie, Feath. Tribes Brit., I. 74.
