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barbarian| Term applied by the ancient Greeks to people who did not speak their language (‘bar, bar’ represents the unintelligible sound of a foreign language). The term gradually ceased to apply to language alone and the Romans used it of tribes and peoples outside the Roman empire who did not share the culture and civilization of Rome. |
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| Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi- barbarian countries dependent on the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West. With the possible exception of Snider, the little party appeared in the best of spirits, laughing and joking, or interestedly discussing the possibilities which the future held for us: what we should find upon the continent, and whether the inhabitants would be civilized or barbarian peoples. As this glad ship of good luck bore down upon the moody Pequod, the barbarian sound of enormous drums came from her forecastle; and drawing still nearer, a crowd of her men were seen standing round her huge try-pots, which, covered with the parchment-like poke or stomach skin of the black fish, gave forth a loud roar to every stroke of the clenched hands of the crew. |
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