Hacker News Reader

I mostly hear this word in the context of the Romans, but I thought that it was a term for facial hair- implying those external to the "civilized" empire had a tendency for ragged and long facial hair.

Hence the term 'barber' for a person that cuts said facial hair.

View on HN

no, that’s a false friend etymology.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/barber

“barbarian” is onomatopoeic for “people who talk like bar bar bar bar and aren’t greek”. the (themselves barbarian) romans adopted the term.

One notable “barbarian” group would be the Berbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbers whose name might actually be derived from the Greek word for barbarian.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com