AboutTed Nesbitt Expertise I have an interest in the meanings of words and phrases, as well as how and when they became part of the English language. I enjoy
researching idioms, colloquialisms, dialects, and obscurities of
all kinds. I prefer short questions on a particular subject, and
I will not accept lengthy research projects or term papers. NOTE: ALLEXPERTS CLAIMS THAT I TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LATIN AND FROM LATIN TO ENGLISH. I DO NOT. ALLEXPERTS REFUSES TO DELETE THE LATIN-TO-ENGLISH SERVICE -- ONE THAT I DO NOT PROVIDE.
TRUST ME ON THIS: ALLEXPERTS IS WRONG. I DO NOT TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LANGUAGE. LOOK FOR A LANGUAGE EXPERT INSTEAD. ETYMOLOGY AND TRANSLATING SERVICES ARE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. ALLEXPERTS SHOULD KNOW THAT. ALLEXPERTS DOES NOT KNOW THAT. I HAVE TRIED FOR MANY YEARS TO GET THEM TO CHANGE. THEY WILL NOT. SORRY, BUT I DO NOT TRANSLATE FROM ENGLISH TO LATIN.
Experience I am the bibliographic instruction and reference librarian at a public
college. My master's thesis concerns William Faulkner's tragic novels. I formerly taught advanced placement English at two schools in the Philadelphia area.
I have been a member of the grammar and writing section of Allexperts
for more than a year.
Education/Credentials Masters degrees in English, philosophy, and library science.
Question Where does the word Barbarian come from and what did it originally mean?
I have two logophile friends who say that the word is originally greek, but differ on what its origins were. The first interpretation is that it comes from a word meaning hairy one, and the other one is that it comes from the greek meaning foreigner or someone who doesn't speak the same language. Can you help?
Answer Lee --
Both of your friends are correct: the Latin part of the origin is "barbarus," but it came from the Greek "barbaros," which means "foreign." [Trying to connect this with the Barbary Coast and Barbary apes makes people think of hair -- but this connection is incorrect.]
I do not have "The Oxford English Dictionary" [OED] at hand now. That multi-volume collection is the "Bible" for tracing the first instances of a word -- as it appears in the English language. I don't think you need that, but when I check it, I will send you additional information, IF IT SHEDS ANY MORE LIGHT ON THIS TOPIC.
In the meantime, there is a lengthy discussion of the word at the weekly online newsletter, "Take Our Word For It." The people who produce the newsletter are excellent, and they rely heavily on the OED.
I am pasting their discussion below, along with the URL for finding it online:
Barbecued barbarians and their barbers
This week's spotlight was inspired by several queries regarding the word barbarian. Apparently there is no small amount of disagreement on the word's origin, despite our best efforts to enlighten. Read on.
From Steven Komlos, from Christopher Sharron and from Malcolm S.J. Fifer:
Please can someone settle an argument? I believe the word barbarian derives from the Romans' reference to foreign speech as bar-bar (like sheep). My protagonist claims it derives from the Roman reference to "bearded" as savages did not have razors. Please advise!
Messrs. Fifer (who wrote the above query), Sharron and Komlos all inquired separately about barbarian. Mr. Komlos (whose e-mail is too lengthy to reprint here) did the right thing and checked our archives first, and he found barbarian discussed therein, but he questioned our expertise. That's a no-no, Mr. Komlos! Bad reader! Detention hall for you today, young man! (Why do you think it's called Take Our Word For It ?) As for Messrs. Sharron and Fifer, you should have checked the database first. No gold star on your homework today!
In the archives we were adamant that barbarian is not related to barber and other beard-related words, and we do not sway from that position now. No etymologist will agree with the notion that barbarians were thus named because of their beards or because they had no razors! Barbarian came to us from Greek bárbaros "the sound foreigners make" (funny how now we say "It's Greek to me" to mean something similar!), and the Romans got their form barbaria from the Greeks. A related word is the first word in the place name Barbary Coast, supposedly named because the inhabitants there spoke a foreign tongue, at least to European ears. The Sanskrit cognate is barbaras "stammering".
Barber (13th century) and related words barb (14th century) and barbel (a fish with hair-like protrusions around its mouth, 14th century) come from Latin barba "beard". English beard (Old English) comes from a relative of the Latin form, Germanic bartha. Today German for beard is bart and the Dutch form is baard.
See our section on Ernest Weekley's test for a sound etymology <glossary.html>. While the notion that barbarians were bearded and thus were named for their beards sounds plausible, one must find evidence in the record to support that. The evidence clearly points in an entirely different direction in this case. Moreover, while Greek men did typically wear beards, Greece was the source of Roman culture. No educated Roman would ever call a Greek a barbarian.
Since we're on the topic of spurious barb- etymologies, I should mention that barbecue does not arise from the French de la barbe ŕ la queue ("from the beard to the tail"), as several readers who refuse to Take Our Word For It have written to say. It comes from barbakoa, a word in the language of the pre-Columbian natives of Haiti, just as our database indicates. The word refers to the wooden framework, traditionally made from allspice wood, used for cooking over a fire.
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This will not settle any disputes, but etymologists CANNOT AGREE on the origin of this word. I hope that I've shed a little light on the subject, however.
Ted Nesbitt
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If you appreciate my research and response, please take a moment to evaluate me. Thank you. TN
I have an emergency at home. I'll try to get back to you in a few hours, if at all possible. You might want to try another expert, if you need this information immediately.
