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by gmarx 3382 days ago
Pretty sure this explanation is just really old speculation. Even if the ancient greeks kept records of word origins, those documents would likely be lost by now
1 comments

Judging by this link: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=barbarian, the reasoning is based on words in other indoeuropean languages having a similar root to 'barbarian' being used to refer to stammering or incoherent speech.
The most interesting part is this: `...meaning "rude, wild person" is from 1610s.`