1. In the time of Homer, when the Greeks and Asiatics might probably use a common idiom, the imitative sound of Barbar was applied to the ruder tribes, whose pronunciation was most harsh, whose grammar was most defective.
(Iliad ii. 867. with the Oxford Scholiast Clarke's Annotation, and Henry Stephens's Greek Thesaurus, tom. i. p.720.). 2. From the time, at least, of Herodotus, it was extended to all the nations who were strangers to the language and manners of the Greeks.
3. In the age of Plautus, the Romans submitted to the insult (Pompeius Festus, l. ii. p. 48, edit. Dacier), and freely gave themselves the name of barbarians. They insensibly claimed an exemption for Italy and her subject provinces — and at length removed the disgraceful appellation to the savage or hostile nations beyond the pale of the empire.
4. In every sense it was due to the Moors: the familiar word was borrowed from the Latin provincials by the Arabian conquerors, and has justly settled as a local denomination (Barbary) along the northern coast of Africa.