barbarize

American  

[bahr-buh-rahyz] / ˈbɑr bəˌraɪz /

especially British, barbarise

verb (used with object)

barbarized, barbarizing

1. to make barbarous; brutalize; corrupt.

   foreign influences barbarizing the Latin language.

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verb (used without object)

barbarized, barbarizing

1. to become barbarous; lapse into barbarism.

2. to use barbarisms in speaking or writing.

barbarize British  

/ ˈbɑːbəˌraɪz /

verb

1. to make or become barbarous

2. to use barbarisms in (language)

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Other Word Forms

• barbarization noun
• debarbarize verb (used with object)
• unbarbarize verb (used with object)

Etymology

Origin of barbarize

1635–45; partly < Greek barbarízein, equivalent to bárbar ( os ) barbarian + -izein -ize; partly barbar(ous) + -ize

Example Sentences

To his French and Arab friends, who look upon Americans as Roman-style imperialists come to organize and barbarize their cultivated Greek-style world, Childress is "the nice American," a surprisingly sensitive soul.

From Time Magazine Archive

The nobles were directed to converse in English, French, Italian, or their native tongue; Pombal declaring, that the custom of speaking Latin was only "to teach them to barbarize."

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 56, No. 345, July, 1844 by Various

The legions are barbarized and they barbarize the Emperor.

From Medieval People by Power, Eileen Edna

Manners are what vex or soothe, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us by a constant, steady, uniform, invincible operation like that of the air we breathe.

From Pushing to the Front by Marden, Orison Swett

Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in.

From Many Thoughts of Many Minds A Treasury of Quotations from the Literature of Every Land and Every Age by Klopsch, Louis