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10 - Waiting for the Barbarians, or, The Hospitality of War: Civilisation and Barbarism in the War on Terror

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Alex Danchev
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Summary

barbarian

1. Etymologically. A foreigner, one whose language and customs differ from the speaker's.

1549 Compl. Scot. Xiii. 106 Euere nation reputes vthers nations to be barbarians, quhen there tua natours and complexions ar contrar til votheris [i.e. each other]. 1611 BIBLE I Cor. xiv. 11, I shall be vnto him that speaketh, a Barbarian, and he that speaketh shal be a Barbarian vnto me. 1827 HARE Guesses (1859) 325 A barbarian is a person who does not talk as we talk, or dress as we dress, or eat as we eat; in short, who is so audacious as not to follow our practice in all the trivialities of manners. 1862 Macm. Mag. Nov. 58 Ovid … laments that in his exile at Tomi he, the polished citizen, is a barbarian to all his neighbours.

2. Historically. a. One not a Greek. b. One living outside the pale of the Roman empire and its civilization, applied especially to the northern nations that overthrew them. c. One outside the pale of Christian civilization. d. With the Italians of Renaissance: One of a nation outside Italy …

3. A rude, wild, uncivilized person …

b. Sometimes distinguished from savage (perh. with a glance at 2) …

c. Applied by the Chinese contemptuously to foreigners.

Oxford English Dictionary
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Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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