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The barbarian is ... The meaning of the word "barbarian" and the first mention

The word "barbarian" exists a very long time ago. It can be found in the Old Slavonic language, Old Russian and modern. The history of the origin of this term is extremely interesting. The article will consider the meaning of the word "barbarian" and how it changed over time. Each epoch brought its changes into this concept and interpreted it to its advantage.

Where does the word "barbarian" occur?

It is widespread everywhere and is used by many peoples. It is caused by the fact that the word has an ancient origin and eventually became used not only in the field of its appearance, but also throughout the world.

Birthplace of the word - Ancient Greece

It was this great country, the cradle of modern civilization, that gave the world a new word. The Greeks of the millennium ago called it so all strangers. For them, a barbarian is any foreigner who lived outside the Greek, and then the Roman state. The etymology of the word is still controversial. It is believed that this is the onomatopoeia of incomprehensible and alien languages for the Greeks - var-var. The word had a scornful connotation, as the other Greeks considered the Greeks less educated and cultured. However, many scientists disagree with this version and believe that this term had a neutral meaning.

And initially this term was used by the ancient Greeks to call everyone who speaks a different language, and only then they began to use it to refer to other nations.

Later the word passed to the Romans, but received a different meaning. For the inhabitants of the Roman state, a barbarian is a rude, uneducated man. This is how the northern peoples began to be called, who, according to the development of culture, lagged far behind the population of the Balkan Peninsula and Italy.

In Greek, the barbarian sounded like barbaros. The Latin name is barbarus in the same meaning (stranger, stranger). It is interesting that in modern French there is the word barbare. It means "cruel, barbaric" and very similar to another word - barbe (beard). According to linguists, this similarity is not accidental. The ancient Greeks preferred to wear neat little beards that curled and smeared with fragrant oils. The northern tribes living in the neighborhood did not care about the beauty of their hair and beards, so they looked unkempt.

The first mention of the word and the change in attitude towards the barbarians

If you believe the written sources of those years, this concept was first used at the end of the VI. BC. E. The Greek historian Hecataeus of Miletus. The Greeks did not accept many habits and customs of neighbors, for example, noisy feasts of Scythians and Thracians. The poet Anacreon wrote about this. The philosopher Heraclitus in his writings applied such a metaphysical concept as the "barbarian soul". Thus, over time, the word began to take an increasingly negative connotation. A barbarian is a foreigner, for whom a general low level of development of culture is characteristic and in which there are no norms of morality acceptable to the Greeks and rules of conduct.

The turning point was the Greco-Persian wars, which were hard for the Greeks. A negative image of a man of non-Greek origin began to form and a stereotype of a barbarian - cowardly, insidious, cruel and hating Greece - was created.

Then there was a period when there was an interest in foreign culture and even admiration for it.

In the IV-V centuries. N. In the era of the Great Migration of Nations, the word again acquired a negative evaluation and was associated with the cruel tribes of savage invaders who destroyed the Roman civilization.

Who are the barbarians: tribes and occupations

What kind of people were called so by the ancient Greeks? As already mentioned above, these were the northern tribes: Germanic, Slavic, Scythian, and also Celts and Thracians.

In the I c. BC. E. Germanic tribes tried to occupy the Roman province of Gaul. Resist them then gave Julius Caesar. The invaders were thrown out of the Rhine, along which the border of the Roman world and the barbarian border crossed.

All the above mentioned tribes had a similar lifestyle. They were engaged in cattle breeding, farming and hunting. They knew weaving and pottery, they knew how to process metal.

Answering the question, who are the barbarians, we need to touch on their cultural level. He did not reach the heights that the Greek civilization achieved, but these tribes were not ignorant or savage. For example, the products of Scythian and Celtic masters are considered valuable works of art.

History of the word in the Middle Ages

The ancient concept was borrowed from the Greeks and Romans by Western Europe and Byzantium. It changed the meaning. A barbarian is an atheist, as the Christian and Catholic clergy believed then.

The set of values

The word "barbarian" can boast that throughout the ages its meaning has changed. For the ancient Greeks, it denoted a stranger who lived outside the country, the Romans so called those tribes and peoples who invaded the territory of the empire and destroyed it. For Byzantium and Western Europe, this word has become synonymous with the heathen.

Nowadays this concept is applied in a figurative sense. In a common sense, a barbarian is a cruel, ignorant person who destroys cultural monuments and values.

It is interesting that the word has not lost its relevance and, despite the prescription of origin, is used to this day.

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