barbarous
/ˈbɑː(ɹ)bəɹəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.54 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
Mercilessly or impudently violent or cruel, savage.
adj
Like a barbarian, especially in sound; noisy, dissonant.
Example Sentences
- "He, that would write exactly, muſt avoid a Barbarous Pronunciation, and conſider for facility, or thorow miſtake, many words are not ſounded after the beſt dialect. Such as […] Wun, one."
- "The original Turkish tongue was somewhat barbarous, but extremely forcible and concise when spoken."
- "[T]he poticaries and barbarus wryters call it [the iris] Irios in the genetiue caſe."
- "It is the remark of an ingenious writer, should a barbarous Indian, who had never seen a palace or a ship, view their separate and disjointed parts, and observe the pillars, doors, windows, cornices and turrets of the one, or the prow and stern, the ribs and masts, the ropes and shrouds, the sails and tackle of the other, he would be able to form but a very lame and dark idea of either of those excellent and useful inventions."
- "I felt vaguely he was a sneak, and remained quite unmollified by advances on his side, which, in a boy's barbarous fashion, unless it suited me to be magnanimous, I haughtily ignored."
- "Direct my weapon to his barbarous heart, / That thus oppoſeth him againſt the Gods, / And ſcornes the Powers that gouerne Perſea."
Etymology
Late Middle English, from Latin barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, strange”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: -, barbarus, βάρβαρος