Barbarous \Bar"ba*rous\, a. [L. barbarus, Gr. ba`rbaros, 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. [1913 Webster]
2. Foreign; adapted to a barbaric taste. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
Barbarous gold. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
3. Cruel; ferocious; inhuman; merciless. [1913 Webster]
By their barbarous usage he died within a few days, to the grief of all that knew him. --Clarendon. [1913 Webster]
4. Contrary to the pure idioms of a language. [1913 Webster]
A barbarous expression --G. Campbell. [1913 Webster]
Syn: Uncivilized; unlettered; uncultivated; untutored; ignorant; merciless; brutal. See {Ferocious}. [1913 Webster]
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