Etymology of "Barbarian," &c.

Passow, in his Lexicon (ed. Liddell and Scott), s.v. βάρβαρος, observes that the word was originally applied to "all that were not Greeks, or that did not speak Greek. It was used of all defects which the Greeks thought foreign to themselves and natural to other nations: but as the Hellenes and Barbarians were most of all *separated by language*, the word had always especial reference to this γλῶσσα βάρβαρα, Soph. Aj. 1263, &c." He considers the word as probably an onomatopœion, to express the sound of a foreign tongue. (Cf. Gibbon, c. li.; Roth, *Ueber Sinn u. Gebrauch des Wortes Barbar.* Nür…