English

Alternative forms

• Barbra

Proper noun

Barbara ‎(plural Barbaras)

1. A female given name.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, Act iv: Scene 3:

     My mother had a maid call'd Barbara; / She was in love, and he she lov'd prov'd mad / And did forsake her; she had a song of 'willow'

   • 17th century or before: English folk song: Barbara Allen: 1839 version by Thomas Percy:

     All in the merrye month of May / When greene buds they were swellin / Yong Jemmye Grove on his death-bed lay / For love of Barbara Allen.

   • 1860 Mrs Henry Wood (Ellen Wood) East Lynne. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0192804626 page 29:

     "What do you think they are going to name the baby? Anne; after her and her mamma. So very ugly a name!" "I don't think so," said Mr Carlyle. "It is simple and unpretending. I like it much. Look at the long, pretentious names in our family - Archibald! Cornelia! And yours, too - Barbara! What a mouthful they all are!" Barbara contracted her eyebrows. It was equivalent to saying that he did not like her name.

   • 1922 Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, ISBN 1603035281, page 76:

     "Everybody in the next generation," suggested Dick, "will be named Peter or Barbara - because at present all piquant literary characters are named Peter or Barbara."

   • 2007 Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans, Fig Tree, ISBN 9780670916375, page 299:

     'Barbara?' Barr―baah―rrah. Barbarian woman. Wild. Untamed. An incredibly sexy name.

Related terms

• pet forms: Babs, Barb, Barbie

Translations

Danish

Proper noun

Barbara

1. A female given name, cognate to Barbara.

Faroese

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. A female given name

Usage notes

Matronymics

• son of Barbara: Barbaruson
• daughter of Barbara: Barbarudóttir

Declension

French

Proper noun

Barbara

1. A female given name, cognate to English Barbara.

Related terms

• Barbe

German

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Barbara

1. A female given name, cognate to Barbara; very popular in the mid-twentieth century.

Related terms

• Bärbel

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɒrbɒrɒ]
• Hyphenation: Bar‧ba‧ra

Proper noun

Barbara

1. A female given name.

Declension

Italian

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. A female given name, cognate to Barbara.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /barˈbara/

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. A female given name, cognate to Barbara.

Declension

Derived terms

• Basia

Slovak

Proper noun

Barbara f

1. A female given name.

English

Noun

barbara ‎(plural barbaras)

1. A syllogism in which all three propositions are of the form "All X are Y" or "X is a Y".

Italian

Adjective

barbara

1. feminine singular of barbaro

Noun

barbara f ‎(plural barbare, masculine barbaro)

1. barbarian (female)

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek βάρβαρος ‎(bárbaros, “foreign, strange”) onomatopoeic (mimicking foreign languages, akin to 'blah blah').

Adjective

barbara ‎(from barbarus)

1. foreign
2. savage
3. uncivilized

Noun

barbara ‎(feminine of barbarus)

1. a foreign woman
2. a savage woman
3. an uncivilized woman

Inflection

First declension.

References

• barbara in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• BARBARA in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “barbara”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.

Spanish

Verb

barbara

1. First-person singular (yo) imperfect subjunctive form of barbar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperfect subjunctive form of barbar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) imperfect subjunctive form of barbar.