barbarous
pronunciation
How to pronounce barbarous in British English:
UK [ˈbɑ:bərəs]
How to pronounce barbarous in American English:
US [ˈbɑrbərəs]
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- Adjective:
- (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict pain or suffering
- primitive in customs and culture
Word Origin
- barbarous
- barbarous: [15] Originally, a barbarous person was a ‘foreigner’, anyone who did not speak your own language. Greek bárbaros meant ‘foreign, ignorant’, and it has been speculated that its ultimate signification was ‘unable to speak intelligibly’ (the related Sanskrit barbaras meant ‘stammering’). English acquired the word from Latin barbarus, a modified Vulgar Latin version of which, *brabus, produced Italian bravo and hence, via French, English brave.=> brave
- barbarous (adj.)
- c. 1400, "uncivilized, uncultured, ignorant," from Latin barbarus, from Greek barbaros (see barbarian). Meaning "not Greek or Latin" (of words or language) is from c. 1500; that of "savagely cruel" is from 1580s.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Cosmopolitan to his core , he comes to barbarous america .
- 2. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous .
- 3. But even worse were those that succeeded in exciting the senses , but in barbarous ways .
- 4. He developed a museum depicting the barbarous treatment that was prevalent in asylums for the insane .
- 5. I will not choose what many man desire , because I will not jump with common spirits , and rank me with the barbarous multitude .