Bar″ba‐rous (�), a. [L. barbarus, Gr. βάρβαροσ, 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.
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.