barbarize

[ bahr-buh-rahyz ]

verb (used with object)

, bar·ba·rized, bar·ba·riz·ing.

1. to make barbarous; brutalize; corrupt:

   foreign influences barbarizing the Latin language.

verb (used without object)

, bar·ba·rized, bar·ba·riz·ing.

1. to become barbarous; lapse into barbarism.
2. to use barbarisms in speaking or writing.

barbarize

/ ˈbɑːbəˌraɪz /

verb

1. to make or become barbarous
2. to use barbarisms in (language)

Derived Forms

• ˌbarbariˈzation, noun

Other Words From

• barba·ri·zation noun
• de·barba·rize verb (used with object) debarbarized debarbarizing
• un·barba·rize verb (used with object) unbarbarized unbarbarizing

Word History and Origins

Origin of barbarize¹

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

Example Sentences

The group is the latest evidence of a near-universal human capacity to barbarize those seen as “others,” as nonbelievers, and treat them as a different form of life.

From Washington Post

The Roman empire was barbarizing rapidly from the time of Trajan.

From Project Gutenberg

Not knowing what to do with the flower border, we barbarized instead of cultivating it.

From Project Gutenberg

For all these ages the African borders have known war and war only, and of the most destructive and barbarizing nature.

From Project Gutenberg

God, acting always through Nature, always by universal and self-evident laws, would not permit a thousand sects of ignorant, profane, impious, blaspheming Priests, to mislead, impoverish, and barbarize the people.

From Project Gutenberg