barbarism

[bahr-buh-riz-uhm]

noun

1. a barbarous or uncivilized state or condition.

2. a barbarous act; something belonging to or befitting a barbarous condition.

3. the use in a language of forms or constructions felt by some to be undesirably alien to the established standards of the language.

4. such a form or construction.

   Some people consider “complected” as a barbarism.

barbarism

/ ˈbɑːbəˌrɪzəm /

noun

1. a brutal, coarse, or ignorant act

2. the condition of being backward, coarse, or ignorant

3. a substandard or erroneously constructed or derived word or expression; solecism

4. any act or object that offends against accepted taste

Other Word Forms

• hyperbarbarism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of barbarism¹

1570–80; < Latin barbarismus < Greek barbarismós foreign way of speaking. See barbarous, -ism

Word History and Origins

Origin of barbarism¹

C16: from Latin barbarismus error of speech, from Greek barbarismos , from barbaros _barbarous

Example Sentences

That descent into “barbarism” was not lost on contemporary observers.

From Salon

The barbarism is in sync with the belief that “no innocent people” are in Gaza.

From Salon

Now, more than a week removed from what he described as “ISIS-level barbarism,” Pellegrino confirmed to The Times he had recovered enough to fly back to New York on Thursday.

From Los Angeles Times

Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the incident as "sheer barbarism", calling the attackers "beasts who target children" in an attempt to destabilise the country.

From BBC

But these veterans had actually done that and won, and remain now as some of the last representatives of a generation that fought Nazism and all of the intolerance and barbarism that represented.

From BBC

Related Words

• atrocity 
• barbarity 
• brutality 
• cruelty 
• inhumanity