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Webster 1913 Edition


Barbarous

Bar′ba-rous

,
Adj.
[L.
barbarus
, Gr.
βάρβαρος
, strange, foreign; later, slavish, rude, ignorant; akin to L.
balbus
stammering, Skr.
barbara
stammering, outlandish. Cf.
Brave
,
Adj.
]
1.
Being in the state of a barbarian; uncivilized; rude; peopled with barbarians;
as, a
barbarous
people; a
barbarous
country
.
2.
Foreign; adapted to a barbaric taste.
[Obs.]
Barbarous
gold.
Dryden.
3.
Cruel; ferocious; inhuman; merciless.
By their
barbarous
usage he died within a few days, to the grief of all that knew him.
Clarendon.
4.
Contrary to the pure idioms of a language.
A
barbarous
expression
G. Campbell.
Syn. – Uncivilized; unlettered; uncultivated; untutored; ignorant; merciless; brutal. See
Ferocious
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Barbarous

B'ARBAROUS

,
Adj.
Uncivilized; savage; unlettered; untutored; ignorant; unacquainted with arts; stranger to civility of manners.
Thou are a roman; be not barbarous.
2.
Cruel; ferocious; inhuman; as barbarous.

Definition 2024


barbarous

barbarous

English

Alternative forms

  • (obsolete) barbarouse

Adjective

barbarous (comparative more barbarous, superlative most barbarous)

  1. (said of language) Not classical or pure.
  2. uncivilized, uncultured
  3. Like a barbarian, especially in sound; noisy, dissonant.
    I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs
    By the known rules of antient libertie,
    When strait a barbarous noise environs me
    Of Owles and Cuckoes, Asses, Apes and Doggs - I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs, John Milton (1673)

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