Chapter Banneret to Barbary of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Barbarians is certainly not derived from the Latin barba (a beard), as many suppose, because it is a Greek word, and has many analogous ones. The Greeks and Romans called all foreigners barbarians (babblers; men who spoke a language not understood by them); the Jews called them Gentiles (other nations); the Russians Ostiaks (foreigners). The reproachful meaning crept in from the natural egotism of man. It is not very long ago that an Englishman looked with disdainful pity on a foreigner, and the French still retain much of the same national exclusiveness. (See Wunderberg.)

"If then I know not the meaning of the voice [words ], I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian [a foreigner ], and he that speaketh will be a barbarian unto me." - l Cor. xiv. ll.

Barbarossa [Red-beard, similar to Rufus ]. The surname of Frederick I of Germany (1121--1190). Also Khaireddin Barbarossa, a famous corsair of the sixteenth century.

Barbary St. Barbary, the patron saint of arsenals and powder magazines. Her father delivered her up to Martian, governor of Nicomedia, for being a Christian. After she had been subjected to the most cruel tortures, her unnatural father was about to strike off her head, when a lightning flash laid him dead at her feet. Hence, those who invoke saints select St. Barbary in thunderstorms. (See Barbe.)

Roan Barbary. The favourite horse of Richard II (See Horse.)

ldquo;O, how it yearned my heart when I beheld
In London streets that coronation day.
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary!
That horse that thou [Rich. II.] so often hast bestrid,
That horse that I so carefully have dressed." Shakespeare: Richard II, v. 5.