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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

barbarious en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • /bɑː(ɹ)ˈbeəɹɪəs/

Etymology

Possibly from barbary (“barbarian, non-Christian”), or combining barbaric and barbarous.

Meanings

  1. (dated, literary, obsolete) barbarous, barbaric.
    • During that calamitous period, every instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbarious invaders and military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution. 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
    • The game is played out, the figures have melted away, the lines are frazzled, the board is mildewed. Everything has become barbarious again. 1941, Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi, page 143:
    • "Well, it seems a barbarious practice enough to us, but I daresay the natives think nothing o' it," said Matthew. 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, page 219:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most barbarious Degree=Sup lexicographic
more barbarious Degree=Cmp lexicographic

Deriveds

barbariousness · barbariously

Synonyms

brutish · barbarian · truculent · uncivilized · grim · uncivil · brutal · savage · Gothic · heathen · barbarious · uncultured · pagan · barbarous · heathenous · Gothlike · heathenish · incivil · wolfish · tenebrose · uncouth · uncultivated · pagan · heathen · barbarian · uplandish · heathenly · animalistic · barbaric