Bar"ba*rous (?), a. [L. barbarus, Gr. , strange, foreign; later, slavish, rude, ignorant; akin to L. balbus stammering, Skr. barbara stammering, outlandish. Cf. Brave, a.]
1.
Being in the state of a barbarian; uncivilized; rude; peopled with barbarians; as, a barbarous people; a barbarous country.
2.
Foreign; adapted to a barbaric taste.
[Obs.]
Barbarous gold.
Dryden.
3.
Cruel; ferocious; inhuman; merciless.
By their barbarous usage he died within a few days, to the grief of all that knew him.
Clarendon.
4.
Contrary to the pure idioms of a language.
A barbarous expression
G. Campbell.
Syn. -- Uncivilized; unlettered; uncultivated; untutored; ignorant; merciless; brutal. See Ferocious.
© Webster 1913.