A barbarian is, etymologically, a foreigner, specifically someone whose language and customs differ from those of the speaker. In ancient Greece, the term designated non-Greeks, while in the Roman world it referred more generally to peoples living outside the cultural and political sphere of the empire. In modern English, the word has developed a pejorative sense, commonly meaning a "rude, wild, uncivilized person".^[1]

The term originates from the Ancient Greek: βάρβαρος (barbaros; pl. βάρβαροι barbaroi). In ancient Greece, the Greeks used the term not only for those who did not speak Greek and follow classical Greek customs, but also for Greek populations on the fringe of the Greek world with peculiar dialects.^[2] In ancient Rome, the Romans adapted and applied the term to tribal non-Romans such as the Huns, Germans, Celts, Iberians, Helvetii, 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.^[3][4]

The Greek word was borrowed into Arabic as well, under the form بربر (barbar), and used as an exonym by the Arab invaders to refer to the indigenous peoples of North Africa, known in English as Amazigh or Berbers, with the latter thereby being a cognate of the word "barbarian".