Barbarian F.C. Matches

A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be less civilized or orderly (such as a tribal society) but may also be part of a certain "primitive" cultural group (such as nomads) or social class (such as bandits) both within and outside one's own nation. Alternatively, they may instead be admired and romanticised as noble savages. In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, and insensitive person.

The term originates from the el, βάρβαρος (''barbaros'' pl. βάρβαροι ''barbaroi''). In Ancient Greece, the Greeks used the term not only towards those who did not speak Greek and follow classical Greek customs, but also towards Greek populations on the fringe of the Greek world with peculiar dialects. In Ancient Rome, the Romans adapted and used the term towards tribal non-Romans such as the Berbers, Germanics, Celts, Iberians, Thracians, Illyrians, and Sarmatians. In the early modern period and sometimes later, the Byzantine Greeks used it for the Turks in a clearly pejorative manner. In Ancient China, references to barbarians go back as far as the Shang Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Annals. "" () or areas outside of range of the Emperor were generally labeled as "Barbarians" or uncivilized through the lens of Sinocentrism.

Etymology

The Ancient Greek name βάρβαρος (''bárbaros'') or "barbarian" was an antonym for πολίτης (''politēs''), "citizen" (from πόλις – ''polis'', "city"). The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek , ''pa-pa-ro'', written in Linear B syllabic script.

The ''Greeks'' used the term ''barbarian'' for all non-Greek-speaking peoples, including the Egyptians, Persians, Medes and Phoenicians, emphasizing their otherness. According to Greek writers, this was because the language they spoke sounded to Greeks like gibberish represented by the sounds "bar..bar..;" the alleged root of the word βάρβαρος, which is an echomimetic or onomatopoeic word. In various occasions, the term was also used by Greeks, especially the Athenians, to deride other Greek tribes and states (such as Epirotes, Eleans, Macedonians, Boeotians and Aeolic-speakers) and also fellow Athenians in a pejorative and politically motivated manner. The term also carried a cultural dimension to its dual meaning. The verb (''barbarízō'') in ancient Greek meant to behave or talk like a barbarian, or to hold with the barbarians.

"It was on he appropriation and adaptation of Egyptian godsthat Greece was founded, according to Plato--and there is no more reliable witness," writes Roberto Calasso in The Celestial Hunter. "The barbarians were therefore the opposite of what the word has come to mean in modern times. They were not new, rough, inarticulate, strong people. They were civilizations much older than Greece--particularly Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia--that had achieved a noble and immovable wisdom." Even in Greek culture, however, the connotations of this word changed over time.

Plato (''Statesman'' 262de) rejected the Greek–barbarian dichotomy as a logical absurdity on just such grounds: dividing the world into Greeks and non-Greeks told one nothing about the second group, yet Plato used the term barbarian frequently in his seventh letter. In Homer's works, the term appeared only once (''Iliad'' 2.867), in the form () ("of incomprehensible speech"), used of the Carians fighting for Troy during the Trojan War. In general, the concept of ''barbaros'' did not figure largely in archaic literature before the 5th century BC. It has been suggested that the "barbarophonoi" in the ''Iliad'' signifies not those who spoke a non-Greek language but simply those who spoke Greek badly.

A change occurred in the connotations of the word after the Greco-Persian Wars in the first half of the 5th century BC. Here a hasty coalition of Greeks defeated the vast Persian Empire. Indeed, in the Greek of this period 'barbarian' is often used expressly to refer to Persians, who were enemies of the Greeks in this war.

The Romans used the term ''barbarus'' for uncivilised people, opposite to Greek or Roman, and in fact, it became a common term to refer to all foreigners among Romans after Augustus age (as, among the Greeks, after the Persian wars, the Persians), including the Germanic peoples, Persians, Gauls, Phoenicians and Carthaginians.

The Greek term ''barbaros'' was the etymological source for many words meaning "barbarian", including English ''barbarian'', which was first recorded in 16th century Middle English.

A word ''barbara-'' is also found in the Sanskrit of ancient India, with the primary meaning of "stammering" implying someone with an unfamiliar language. The Greek word ''barbaros'' is related to Sanskrit ''barbaras'' (stammering). This Indo-European root is also found in Latin ''balbus'' for "stammering" and Czech blblati "to stammer". The verb ''baṛbaṛānā'' in both contemporary Hindi (बड़बड़ाना) as well as Urdu