Technically most Romans are barbarians two holmes... The word came from Greeks mocking the language of non Greek speakers. Anyways welcome to the site
So, you'll switch from who you think is more reasonable? You seem like a few of our members... a few indeed. Anyways, welcome to the forums.
barbarian means hairy one i believe so i guess i'm a hairy man don't think the romans were very hairy
Nope. Barbarian comes from the Greek "barbaros" which is an onomatopoeia for the sound non-Greek speakers made trying to speak. I learned the beard thing (Romans would refer to non Romans as barbarians because they had beards) when I was a kid, but the Greeks had been using forms of the word since the Mycenaean period.
damn i guess i was wrong don't remeber where i heard the hairy one thing ( but i think it makes sense)
It's what I grew up with too. I'm pretty sure I even learned in an old history textbook that barb or barbor or some root of the word was an old word for beard. Alas though, it's definitely an interesting conversation point as most people just have a general idea of what it means, but aren't really aware of the origins.
well non roman/ greek europeans are what most people think of as barbarians ( besides historians on greek)
