1. absence of culture and civilization: "the collapse of civilization and the return to barbarism"
▪ a word or expression that is badly formed according to traditional philological rules, for example a word formed from elements of different languages, such as breathalyzer (English and Greek) or television (Greek and Latin).
2. extreme cruelty or brutality:"she called the execution an act of barbarism"
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French barbarisme, via Latin from Greek barbarismos, from barbarizein ‘speak like a foreigner’, from barbaros ‘foreign’.