barbarian – English noun declension

English noun forms of barbarian

Noun: barbarian
Singularbarbarian
Pluralbarbarians

Sample Sentences

  • Shall a noble writer, and an inspired noble writer, be called a solecist, and barbarian, for giving a new turn to a word so agreeable to the analogy and genius of the Greek tongue? [1725, Anthony Blackwall, The Sacred Classics Defended And Illustrated:]
  • Thou fell barbarian. [1712, Ambrose Philips, The Distrest Mother:]

Etymology

From Middle English barbarian, borrowed from Medieval Latin barbarinus (“Berber, pagan, foreigner”), from Latin barbaria (“foreign country”), from barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, non-Greek, strange”), possibly onomatopoeic (mimicking foreign languages, akin to English blah blah). Cognate to Sanskrit बर्बर (barbara, “barbarian, non-Aryan, stammering, blockhead”). See: Latin Nouns 'barbaria'.