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  1. barbarian love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A member of a people considered by those of another nation or group to have a primitive civilization.
  2. n. A fierce, brutal, or cruel person.
  3. n. An insensitive, uncultured person; a boor. See Synonyms at boor.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A foreigner; one whose language and customs differ from those of the speaker or writer.
  2. n. One outside the pale of Christian civilization.
  3. n. A man in a rude, savage state; an uncivilized person.
  4. n. An uncultured person; one who has no sympathy with culture; a philistine.
  5. n. A cruel, savage, brutal person; one destitute of pity or humanity: as, “thou fell barbarian,”
  6. n. [capitalized] A native of Barbary. Synonyms Heathen, etc. See gentile, n.
  7. Foreign; of another or outside nation; hence, non-Hellenic, non-Roman, non-Christian, non-Chinese, etc.
  8. Of or pertaining to savages; rude; uncivilized.
  9. Cruel; inhuman; barbarous.
  10. [capitalized] Of or belonging to Barbary. Synonyms Barbarian, Barbarous, Barbaric, unlettered, uncultivated, untutored, ignorant. Barbarian applies to whatever pertains to the life of an uncivilized people, without special reference to its moral aspects. Barbarous properly expresses the bad side of barbarian life and character, especially its inhumanity or cruelty: as, a barbarous act. Barbaric expresses the characteristic love of barbarians for adornment, magnificence, noise, etc., but it is not commonly applied to persons; it implies the lack of cultivated taste: as, barbaric music; barbaric splendor. Barbarian and barbaric are now strictly confined to the meanings named above.
  11. n. A member of a barbarian people. See II., 5.
  12. In anthropology, pertaining to a state of society in which descent is reckoned in the paternal line, and in which the members of the paternal family of all generations form an exogamous social unit called a gens.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Relating to people, countries or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.
  2. n. An uncivilized or uncultured person, originally compared to the hellenistic Greco-Roman civilisation; often associated with fighting or other such shows of strength.
  3. n. derogatory Someone from a developing country or backward culture.
  4. n. A warrior, clad in fur or leather, associated with Sword and Sorcery stories.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Historical A foreigner.
  2. n. A man in a rude, savage, or uncivilized state.
  3. n. A person destitute of culture.
  4. n. A cruel, savage, brutal man; one destitute of pity or humanity.
  5. adj. Of, or pertaining to, or resembling, barbarians; rude; uncivilized; barbarous.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking culture or refinement
  2. adj. without civilizing influences
  3. n. a member of an uncivilized people

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English, from Medieval Latin barbarinus ("Berber, pagan, Saracen, barbarian"), from Latin barbaria ("foreign country"), from barbarus ("foreigner, savage"), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (barbaros, "foreign, strange"), onomatopoeic (mimicking foreign languages, akin to 'blah blah'). (Wiktionary)
  2. French barbarien, from barbare, barbarous, from Latin barbarus; see barbarous. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Las Casas, however, turned the term barbarian against the civilizers.”

    Simon & Schuster: Bloodlust

  • “He does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive appellation.”

    The History of the Peloponnesian War

  • “He does not even use the term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive name.”

    Simon & Schuster: THE LANDMARK THUCYDIDES

  • “Point of interest: Philip uses the term barbarian for a foreign king.”

    American Chronicle

  • “Obviously, in his later years, when he became king, necessity demanded he modify his ways, but as we witness in “Phoenix on the Sword,” the barbarian is always lurking just beneath the surface.”

    The Triumph of Barbarism over Civilization « Gerry Canavan

  • “A desperate new appeal by the president of Georgia to stop what he calls barbarian behavior by Russia.”

    CNN Transcript Aug 14, 2008

  • “The king's persistency in begging her not to veil so austerely a face which the gods had made for the admiration of men, his evident vexation upon her refusal to appear in Greek costume at the sacrifices and public solemnities, his unsparing raillery at what he termed her barbarian shyness, all tended to convince her that the young”

    King Candaules

  • “Ali blamed media reports of the conflict in Syria for inciting what he described as a "barbarian action" and "terrorism.”

    USATODAY.com Feed

  • “As to the jade and precious stones that were produced in "barbarian" territory, only these merchants risk crossing boundaries to purchase, putting their lives in danger to seek wealth and goods. 125”

    Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan (Second Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE)

  • “Jowar and his men could only watch as the Princess and her strange companions, one obviously a barbarian from the north, entered the city.”

    Archive 2009-12-01

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‘barbarian’ has been looked up 2979 times, loved by 1 person, added to 15 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 13.