From Greek 'bárbaros,' mimicking unintelligible speech as 'bar-bar' — originally neutral for non-Greek speakers, later degraded to 'savage.'
A person in a savage, primitive state; historically, a foreigner or outsider whose language or customs were considered crude or unintelligible.
From Latin 'barbarus,' from Greek 'bárbaros' (foreign, non-Greek-speaking), an onomatopoeic word imitating unintelligible speech — as if foreigners said 'bar-bar-bar.' The Greeks used 'bárbaros' for anyone who did not speak Greek, including Persians and Egyptians regardless of their civilization's sophistication. The Romans borrowed the word but exempted the Greeks, applying
The Greeks coined 'barbaros' to mock foreign speech as sounding like 'bar-bar-bar' — meaningless babble. The same linguistic mockery appears worldwide: the Slavic word for 'German' ('Němec') comes from 'němъ' (mute), and the Maya called the Spanish 'nùum' (those who murmur). Remarkably, even Sanskrit has 'barbara' meaning 'stammering,' suggesting the Greek word may