Barbarous \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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)