different between barbarous vs murderous

English

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) barbarouse

Etymology

Late Middle English, from Latin barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek ???????? (bárbaros, “foreign, strange”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b??(?)b???s/

Adjective

barbarous (comparative more barbarous, superlative most barbarous)

1. (said of language) Not classical or pure.
2. uncivilized, uncultured
   • 1923, Walter de la Mare, Seaton's Aunt

     I felt vaguely he was a sneak, and remained quite unmollified by advances on his side, which, in a boy's barbarous fashion, unless it suited me to be magnanimous, I haughtily ignored.

3. Like a barbarian, especially in sound; noisy, dissonant.

   I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs

   By the known rules of antient libertie,

   When strait a barbarous noise environs me

   Of Owles and Cuckoes, Asses, Apes and Doggs - I did but prompt the age to quit their cloggs, John Milton (1673)

Derived terms

• barbarously
• barbarousness

Related terms

• barbarian
• barbaric

Translations

English

Etymology

From murder +? -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns denoting possession or presence of a quality).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m??d???s/, /?m??d??s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?d???s/, /?m?d??s/
• Homophone: murderess (one pronunciation)
• Hyphenation: mur?der?ous

Adjective

murderous (comparative more murderous, superlative most murderous)

1. Of, characterized by, or pertaining to murder or murderers.
2. Of a person: intending or likely to commit murder; bloodthirsty, homicidal.

   Synonym: (obsolete) assassinous

   Antonyms: nonmurderous, unmurderous
3. (often figuratively) Of an object: used to commit murder; capable of causing death; deadly, fatal.

   Antonyms: nonmurderous, unmurderous
4. (by extension) Very difficult.

   Synonyms: killing; see also Thesaurus:difficult

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:easy

Alternative forms

• murtherous (obsolete)

Derived terms

• murderously
• murderousness
• nonmurderous
• unmurderous

Related terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• murder on Wikipedia.Wikipedia