barbaric

Barbaric means crude, uncivilized, or primitive. It’s often used to describe things that are cruel or brutal in a way that’s considered entirely uncivilized.

Barbaric is also used to describe things that involve people considered barbarians—people who are extremely crude and uncivilized.

The term barbarian was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to refer to any foreigner. In ancient and medieval times, it was variously used to refer to non-Greeks, non-Romans, and non-Christians. The term eventually became associated with a stereotypical image of barbarians as primitive and brutish.

Like the word savage, the word barbarian can be very offensive due to its use to dehumanize the people that it’s applied to, especially in a way that calls attention to their otherness or the supposed primitiveness of their culture or customs. Barbaric can also imply these same things, especially when it’s applied to the practices of a culture other than one’s own.

The related word barbarous also means uncivilized, crude, or cruel.

Example: We need to put an end to this barbaric violence.

The first records of the word barbaric come from the 1480s. It derives from the Latin barbaricus, meaning “foreign,” and ultimately comes from the Greek bárbaros, meaning “non-Greek,” or, more generally, “foreign.”

The Greek bárbaros is related to the Sanskrit barbara, which means “stammering” and was also used to refer to non-Aryans. The ultimate basis of these terms is thought to be an imitation of someone speaking a language that is completely incomprehensible, as if they were just saying the word bar over and over. This origin is indicative of how offensive the words barbarian and barbaric can be when used in certain ways. Portraying an unfamiliar language as primitive gibberish simply because it’s unfamiliar is offensive in much the same way that calling a person barbaric can be when it’s meant to dehumanize them due to their differences.

What are some other forms related to barbaric?

• barbarically (adverb)

What are some synonyms for barbaric?

• crude
• uncivilized
• cruel
• barbarous

What are some words that share a root or word element with barbaric? 

• barbarian
• barbarism
• barbarity
• barbarize

What are some words that often get used in discussing barbaric?

• practice
• behavior
• violence
• attack

Barbaric is always used negatively. It can be offensive when used to dehumanize a group and imply that their culture is primitive.

In her time, Ida. B. Wells Wells (1862-1931) was the most famous Black woman in America. In the 1890s, her work exposing the barbaric practice of lynching gained national renown. https://t.co/oTNUr6EMIt
VIA @womenshistory #BlackHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/nqTIrjzOfF

— marinparks (@marinparks) February 12, 2021

Only a barbaric system would allow millions of people to lose their health insurance during a deadly pandemic.

We need Medicare For All.

— Nina Turner (@ninaturner) February 14, 2021

Thread on the Lincoln quote I wrote about earlier. McIntosh's murder was utterly barbaric. He was burned alive. According to one account, when one of his killers said he was dead, McIntosh suddenly yelled from the flames, begging someone to shoot him. https://t.co/63cGCphUeI

— Brian Lyman (@lyman_brian) August 27, 2020