| 释义 |
barbarous, a.|ˈbɑːbərəs|
[f. L. barbar-us, a. Gr. βάρβαρος + -ous: preceded in use by the simple barbare, without suffix. The Gr. word had probably a primary reference to speech, and is compared with L. balbus stammering. The sense-development in ancient times was (with the Greeks) ‘foreign, non-Hellenic,’ later ‘outlandish, rude, brutal’; (with the Romans) ‘not Latin nor Greek,’ then ‘pertaining to those outside the Roman empire’; hence ‘uncivilized, uncultured,’ and later ‘non-Christian,’ whence ‘Saracen, heathen’; and generally ‘savage, rude, savagely cruel, inhuman.’ The later uses occur first in Eng., the L. and Gr. senses appearing only in translators or historians.]
1. Of language:
a. orig. Not Greek; subseq. not Greek nor Latin; hence, not classical or pure (Latin or Greek), abounding in ‘barbarisms.’ Hence,
b. Unpolished, without literary culture; pertaining to an illiterate people.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 2 My wytte is grosse..and my tonge very barbarouse. 1538Starkey England 193 To see al our law..wryten in thys barbarouse langage [i.e. old French]. 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. 221 Barbarouse Latin doth alter from trew Latins. 1570R. Ascham Scholem. (1863) 71 Avoidyng barbarous ryming. 1600J. Dymmok Treat. Irel. (1843) 47 Barbarous for the Latyn but cyuill for the sence. 1611Cotgr., Narquois, the gibbridge, or barbarous language used among them [Gipsies]. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. x. (1627) 147 Will still write false Latine, barbarous phrase. 1751Johnson Rambl. No. 169 ⁋6 From which [Latin]..the present European tongues are nothing more than barbarous degenerations. 1788Reid Aristot. Log. iv. ii. 74 The mystery contained in the vowels of those barbarous words [Barbara, Celarent, etc.]. 1791Cowper Iliad ii. 1063 The Carians, people of a barbarous speech. 1857Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 9 A wholly barbarous use of the word, barbarous in a double sense, for it is not English, and it is bad Greek.
2. Of people: Speaking a foreign language, foreign, outlandish; orig. non-Hellenic; then, not Roman, living outside the Roman Empire; sometimes, not Christian, heathen. (Often with a glance at sense 3.)
1542Udall Apoph. 285 a, Bearyng rewle emong the Barbarous, that is to weete, the Portugalles. 1543Traheron Vigo's Wks. Gloss., The barbarous auctours vse alcohol..for moost fyne poudre. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. 4 The Scythian counted the Athenian, whom he did not vnderstand, barbarous. ― Acts xxviii. 2 The barbarous people shewed vs no little kindnesse. 1713Pope Windsor For. 365 Let barb'rous Ganges arm a servile train.
3. Uncultured, uncivilized, unpolished; rude, rough, wild, savage. (Said of men, their manners, customs, products.) The usual opposite of civilized.
1538Starkey England 117 A gret rudenes and a barbarouse custume usyd wyth us. 1587Golding De Mornay viii. 96 Let vs come to Lawes, for euen the barbarousest people had of them. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iv. i. 52 Barbarous Caues, Where manners nere were preach'd. 1635N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. xiii. 214 A barbarous and vnciuil place. 1658R. Flecknoe Epigr. 67 Would tame fierce lions, and civilize barbarousest savages. 1780Harris Philol. Eng. (1841) 514 Italy at the beginning of her history was barbarous. 1840Carlyle Heroes ii. 105 An uncultured semi-barbarous son of Nature.
4. Savage in infliction of cruelty, cruelly harsh.
[1538Starkey England iv. 107 Tyrannys and Barbarus pryncys.] 1588Shakes. Tit. A. i. i. 378 Thou art a Romaine, be not barbarous. c1620Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 154 This barbarous villaine did no mercy show. c1660Bk. Com. Prayer K. Chas. Mart., A constant meek suffering of all barbarous indignities. 1749Fielding Tom Jones xviii. xii, It would be barbarous to part Tom and the girl. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. v. 111 The barbarous aspect of war.
5. Like the speech of barbarians; harsh-sounding, rudely or coarsely noisy.
1645Milton Sonn. xii, A barbarous noise environs me Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs. 1667― P.L. vii. 32 The barbarous dissonance Of Bacchus and his Revellers. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 253 Innumerable rills..making a barbarous and unpleasant sound. 1856Olmsted Slave States 24 The music was wild and barbarous.
†6. = barbaric 2. Obs.
1700Dryden Pal. & Arc. iii. 65 The trappings of his horse emboss'd with barbarous gold. |