Synonyms for barbarian
- lowbrow
- philistine
- primitive
- rough
- wild
- barbaric
- barbarous
- boorish
- brutal
- coarse
- cruel
- inhuman
- merciless
- rude
- uncivil
- uncivilized
- uncouth
- uncultivated
- uncultured
- unsophisticated
- untamed
- vicious
- vulgar
Antonyms for barbarian
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR BARBARIAN
Almost every Barbarian at the table had made his own fortune.
The intelligence and facilities of Government are but one step above the barbarian.
I am a Prince of Naples, and I'll not bend the knee to a barbarian.
How could you be such a barbarian as to see the head of a man cut off?
It's a heap onadvisable when addressin' us to overwork that word "barbarian."
Indeed (he added), the answer of the barbarian to the king seems aposite.
On the left was Ariaeus, Cyrus's second in command, and the rest of the barbarian host.
And if you do that, the old days will return of barbarian invasions.
This is as true of the barbarian as of the Christian, and no more so.
And this barbarian, with his "improvement" schemes, forsooth!
WORD ORIGIN
mid-14c., from Medieval Latin barbarinus (source of Old French barbarin "Berber, pagan, Saracen, barbarian"), from Latin barbaria "foreign country," from Greek barbaros "foreign, strange, ignorant," from PIE root *barbar- echoic of unintelligible speech of foreigners (cf. Sanskrit barbara- "stammering," also "non-Aryan," Latin balbus "stammering," Czech blblati "to stammer").
Greek barbaroi (n.) meant "all that are not Greek," but especially the Medes and Persians. Originally not entirely pejorative, its sense darkened after the Persian wars. The Romans (technically themselves barbaroi) took up the word and applied it to tribes or nations which had no Greek or Roman accomplishments. The noun is from late 14c., "person speaking a language different from one's own," also (c.1400) "native of the Barbary coast;" meaning "rude, wild person" is from 1610s.
MORE RELATED WORDS FOR BARBARIAN
Philistine
nounboorPhilistine
adjectivecoarse- barbarian
- barbaric
- base
- bawdy
- blue
- boorish
- brutish
- cheap
- churlish
- common
- crass
- crude
- dirty
- earthy
- filthy
- foul
- foul-mouthed
- gross
- gruff
- ill-bred
- immodest
- impolite
- improper
- impure
- incult
- indelicate
- inelegant
- loutish
- low
- lowbred
- lowdown and dirty
- mean
- nasty
- obscene
- off-color
- offensive
- raffish
- raunchy
- raw
- ribald
- rough
- roughneck
- rude
- scatological
- smutty
- tacky
- tasteless
- uncivil
- uncivilized
- uncouth
- uncultivated
- uncultured
- unpolished
- unrefined
- vulgar
- vulgarian