Bar"ba*rous (?), a. [L. barbarus, Gr. , strange, foreign; later, slavish, rude, ignorant; akin to L. balbus stammering, Skr. barbara stammering, outlandish. Cf. Brave, a.]

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 1913.

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