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The original meaning of "barbarian" was akin to "not Roman" or "foreigner" (more precisely, someone not belonging to any of the classic civilizations). Akin to
by TuringTest 9y ago
The original meaning of "barbarian" was akin to "not Roman" or "foreigner" (more precisely, someone not belonging to any of the classic civilizations).
Akin to "villanus" (someone living in a village), it took a derogatory tone later, as someone "uncivilized", but that was not part of its literal meaning.
- steaktartaar_ 9y agoGreek, in fact. Barbarian has it's roots in βάρβαρος, an ancient Greek onomatopoeic for "people who go bar bar bar", or people who don't speak Greek.
- mirimir 9y agoOK, foreigner. But foreigner to what? I think that he styles everyone except working-class geeks as barbarians.
- TuringTest 9y agoGiven the context and epoch of the book, I'd guess "barbarian" refers to non-Western, non-industrial societies. BTW, there's a Wikipedia article about the book. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Clas...
- mirimir 9y agoYes, pre-industrial. But as far as I can tell, so far, he doesn't clearly define the term in the book.