Bar"ba*rism (?), n. [L. barbarismus, Gr.; cf. F. barbarisme.]
1.
An uncivilized state or condition; rudeness of manners; ignorance of arts, learning, and literature; barbarousness.
Prescott.
2.
A barbarous, cruel, or brutal action; an outrage.
A heinous barbarism . . . against the honor of marriage.
Milton.
3.
An offense against purity of style or language; any form of speech contrary to the pure idioms of a particular language. See Solecism.
The Greeks were the first that branded a foreign term in any
of their writers with the odious name of barbarism.
G. Campbell.
© Webster 1913.