barbarian

barbarian adj Barbarian, barbaric, barbarous, savage are comparable when applying to people or characteristics of people that are not fully civilized.

Barbarian frequently applies to a state about midway between full civilization and tribal savagery

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some barbarian peoples have brought their mores into true adjustment to their life conditions and have gone on for centuries without change— Sumner

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Barbaric and barbarous may also be used to express this notion

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they had passed the barbaric stage when they invaded Chaldea. They knew the use of metals; they were skillful architects and... good engineers— Clodd

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Caesar's short sketch of the Germans gives the impression of barbarous peoples... they had not yet reached the agricultural stage, but were devoted to war and hunting— H. O. [i]Taylor

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Savage implies an even less advanced and more primitive state

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for savage or semicivilized men ... authority is needed to restrain them from injuring themselves— Elioty

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Barbarous and savage are somewhat more commonly used than barbaric and barbarian to indicate uncivilized cruelty, but all may be so used

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he required as a condition of peace that they should sacrifice their children to Baal no longer. But the barbarous custom was too inveterate— Frazer

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the King's greed passed into savage menace. He would hang all, he swore—man, woman, the very child at the breast—J. R. Green

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they had further traits and customs which are barbaric rather than specifically Teutonic: cruelty and faithlessness toward enemies, feuds, wergeld— H. O. Taylor

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for him those chambers held barbarian hordes, hyena foeman, and hot-blooded lords— Keats

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Barbaric and barbarous are more common in relation to taste and refinement.

Barbaric suggests a wild, profuse lack of restraint

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this audacious and barbaric profusion of words—chosen always for their color and their vividly expressive quality— Symons

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the march became rather splendid and barbaric. First rode Feisal in white, then Sharraf at his right in red headcloth and henna-dyed tunic and cloak, myself on his left in white and scarlet, behind us three banners of faded crimson silk with gilt spikes— T. E. Lawrence

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Barbarous implies an utter lack of cultivated taste and refinement

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a race of unconscious spiritual helots. We shall become utterly barbarous and desolate— Lewisohn

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but this deeply barbarous book may, in its very vulgarity of expression, be in advance of its time— Dorothy Thompson

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Antonyms: civilized

barbarian n *obscurantist, philistine