different between barbarous vs venomous

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 Middle English venemous, venymous, from Anglo-Norman venimus, from venin. Cf. Latin ven?n?sus. Equivalent to venom +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?n?m?s/

Adjective

venomous (comparative more venomous, superlative most venomous)

1. Full of venom.

2. Toxic; poisonous.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Again?t venemous tongues enpoy?oned with ?claunder and fal?e detractions &c.:

     More venemous and much more virulent
     Then any poy?oned tode, or any ?erpent.

3. Noxious; evil.
4. Malignant; spiteful; hateful.

5. Producing venom (a toxin usually injected into an enemy or prey by biting or stinging) in glands or accumulating venom from food.

6. powerful

Usage notes

See poisonous#Usage notes.

Synonyms

• noxious
• poisonous
• toxic

Antonyms

• non-venomous

Translations

References

• “venomous” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• venomous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.