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Podcast barbarian  Printable Version Pronunciation: bahr--ri-yên
Hear it!  Part of Speech: Noun  Meaning: 1. A crude, uncultured,
heartless person, a boor; someone who lives and treats others
savagely. 2. A wild or primitive person, a savage.  Notes: The
meaning of today's Good Word has meandered from simply "foreign"
to "crude, uncivilized", reflecting the traditional Western
European view of non-Europeans. It comes from a large unfriendly
family, including several nouns, barbary, barbarity, and
barbarism—all meaning relatively the same thing, the stuff that
makes a barbarian a barbarian. Yes, this word may be used as an
adjective. It is even related to a proper name, Barbara, which
became popular when the meaning of the root was just
"foreign(er)".  In Play: Today's word may refer to anyone who
lives in violation of most if not all the rules of human
decency: "Street gangs in large citi