Hypertext Webster Gateway: "barbarous"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Barbarous \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}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
barbarous
adj 1: (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict
pain or suffering; "a barbarous crime"; "brutal
beatings"; "cruel tortures"; "Stalin's roughshod
treatment of the kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious
kicks" [syn: {brutal}, {cruel}, {fell}, {roughshod}, {savage},
{vicious}]
2: primitive in customs and culture
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