Ancient Barbarians

IIRC, the root of the word barbarian comes from the word for 'beard' and it was the foreigners the Greeks thought had outlandish facial hair. So the real question is: did the average Dacian have a beard? :lol:

I heard that the Romans coined the term, mostly because when they spoke, it sounded like they were saying 'bar bar' over and over to the Romans
 
barbarian was anybody living outside of the roman empire (or wasnt greek) as far as I know. Then again, with the way they acted, the greeks and romans were very barbaric....
 
Naskra should confirm that the Greeks indeed used "barbaros" well before the Romans adapted the term.

Also, words change significance - Greeks may well have thought all foreigners barbarians, considering they were head and shoulders above their close neighbours (and that's an understatement), but the Romans would have had a hard time considering, say, the Egyptians less advanced than they were.
 
Naskra should confirm that the Greeks indeed used "barbaros" well before the Romans adapted the term.

Also, words change significance - Greeks may well have thought all foreigners barbarians, considering they were head and shoulders above their close neighbours (and that's an understatement), but the Romans would have had a hard time considering, say, the Egyptians less advanced than they were.

Yes they did .

Anyway , for all your etymology questions of English words that may come from Latin or Greek words (or what are the Latin or Greek words that correspond to English words , like a translation), use this website.


http://www.wordinfo.info/


barbarian, barbaryn (older spelling)
1. Etymologically, a foreigner, one whose language and customs differ from the speaker's.
2. Historically: one who is not a Greek; then one living outside the pale of the Roman empire and its civilization, applied especially to the northern nations that overthrew them; followed by one who existed outside the realm of Christian civilization.
3. A rude, wild, uncivilized person.
4. An uncultured person, or one who has no sympathy with literary culture.
5. Applied by nations, generally depreciatively, to foreigners; thus at various times and with various speakers or writers: non-Hellenic, non-Roman (most usual), non-Christian.

From Greek βάρβαρος barbaros, "non-Greek, foreign, barbarous," from an Indo-European imitative base barb, "to stammer, stutter; and unintelligible." The Greeks were quoted as saying that foreigners sounded as if they were saying, "Barbar, Barbar," which was, for the Greeks, unintelligible.
 
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