How Barbarian Got Its Name

Ancient Greeks often described foreign languages as sounding like “bar bar bar” to Greek ears, so they coined the onomatopoeic term barbaros for anyone who did not speak Greek. Athenians and other Greeks used it as a shorthand for outsiders defined by language, not tribe or nation. The label stuck, marking a clear cultural line between Greek speakers and everyone else. Over time, the word passed into later languages as “barbarian.”

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