barbarism

[bahr-buh-riz-uhm]

noun

1. a barbarous or uncivilized state or condition.

2. a barbarous act; something belonging to or befitting a barbarous condition.

3. the use in a language of forms or constructions felt by some to be undesirably alien to the established standards of the language.

4. such a form or construction.

   Some people consider “complected” as a barbarism.

barbarism

/ ˈbɑːbəˌrɪzəm /

noun

1. a brutal, coarse, or ignorant act

2. the condition of being backward, coarse, or ignorant

3. a substandard or erroneously constructed or derived word or expression; solecism

4. any act or object that offends against accepted taste

Other Word Forms

• hyperbarbarism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of barbarism¹

1570–80; < Latin barbarismus < Greek barbarismós foreign way of speaking. See barbarous, -ism

Word History and Origins

Origin of barbarism¹

C16: from Latin barbarismus error of speech, from Greek barbarismos , from barbaros _barbarous

Example Sentences

Structurally, Mr. Century uses short chapters to create a tick-tock cadence of Senesh’s final months while also broadening his lens to capture the courageous exploits and casual barbarisms of a genocidal age.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The Human Rights Commission of the Rio state legislature will demand "explanations" of how the favela was turned into a "theater of war and barbarism," commission head Dani Monteiro told AFP on Tuesday.

Read more on Barron's

If Mr. Safdie’s intent is to make the fights seem like meaningless barbarism, he has succeeded.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It’s a movie that tackles what it means for young people to volunteer for organized barbarism out of desperate need — as well as the consumption of their destruction as entertainment.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Within weeks, Pablo Picasso’s painting “Guernica” was on public display, boosting global revulsion at such barbarism.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• atrocity 
• barbarity 
• brutality 
• cruelty 
• inhumanity