Helmets of Germanics Barbarian Knights V1

The term barbarian refers to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to member of a nation... more

by John Straton

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Helmets of Germanics Barbarian Knights V1

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John Straton

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The term "barbarian" refers to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage. In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person.[1]

The term originates from the Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros). Hence the Greek idiom "πᾶς μὴ Ἕλλην βάρβαρος" (pas mē Hellēn barbaros) which literally means "whoever is not Greek is a barbarian". In ancient times, Greeks used it mostly for people of different cultures, but there are examples where one Greek city or state would use the word to attack another (e.g. haughty Athenians calling the Boeotians barbarian);[2] in the early modern period and sometimes later, Greeks used it for the Turks, in a clearly pejorative way.[3][4] Comparable notions are found in non-European civilizations, notably China and Japan. In the Roman Empire, Romans used the word "barbarian" for many people, such as the Berbers, Germanics, Celts, Carthaginians, Iberians, Thracians and Persians.
The Ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros), "barbarian", was an antonym for πολίτης (politēs), "citizen" (from πόλις - polis, "city-state"). The sound of barbaros onomatopoetically evokes the image of babbling (a person speaking a non-Greek language).[5] The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀞𐀞𐀫, pa-pa-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.[6][7]

The Greeks and Romans used the term as they encountered scores of different foreign cultures, including the Egyptians, Persians, Medes, Celts, Germanic peoples, Phoenicians and Carthaginians. In fact, it became a common term to refer to all foreigners. However in various occasions, the term was also used by Greeks, especially the Athenians, to deride other Greek tribes and states (such as Epirotes, Eleans, Macedonians and Aeolic-speakers) but also fellow Athenians, in a pejorative and politically motivated manner.[8][9][10] Of course, the term also carried a cultural dimension to its dual meaning.[11][12] The verb βαρβαρίζειν (barbar�zein) in ancient Greek meant imitating the linguistic sounds non-Greeks made or making grammatical errors in Greek.

Plato (Statesman 262de) rejected the Greek�barbarian dichotomy as a logical absurdity on just such grounds: dividing the world into Greeks and non-Greeks told one nothing about the second group. In Homer's works, the term appeared only once (Iliad 2.867), in the form βαρβαρόφωνος (barbarophonos) ("of incomprehensible speech"), used of the Carians fighting for Troy during the Trojan War. In general, the concept of barbaros did not figure largely in archaic literature before the 5th century BC.[13] Still it has been suggested that "barbarophonoi" in the Iliad signifies not those who spoke a non-Greek language but simply those who spoke Greek badly.[14]

A change occurred in the connotations of the word after the Greco-Persian Wars in the first half of the 5th century BC. Here a hasty coalition of Greeks defeated the vast Achaemenid Empire. Indeed in the Greek of this period 'barbarian' is often used expressly to mean Persian.[15]

Greek barbaros was the etymological source for many words meaning "barbarian", including English barbarian, which was first recorded in 16th-century Middle English.

A word barbara- is also found in the Sanskrit of ancient India.[16][17][18][19] The Greek word barbaros is related to Sanskrit barbaras

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September 30th, 2014

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