Berber
UK /ˈbɜːbə/ · US /ˈbɝ.bɚ/ noun, proper noun, adjective
Forms Berbers
- noun (potentially offensive, occasionally proscribed) A member of a particular ethnic group indigenous to Western North Africa.
- noun (plural only "Berbers") A kind of traditional rug manufactured by the Berber people.
- proper noun A group of closely related Afroasiatic languages spoken in northern Africa, particularly Morocco and Algeria.
- adjective Of the Berber people, their culture, or their language.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Arabic بَرْبَرِيّ (barbariyy, “Berber”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “non-Greek, foreign, barbarian”), apparently imitative of foreign speech. Cognate of English barbarian.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A member of a race somewhat resembling the Arabs, but often classed as Hamitic, who were formerly the inhabitants of the whole of North Africa from the Mediterranean southward into the Sahara, and who still occupy a large part of that region; --called also Kabyles.
Etymology [See Barbary.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “Berber”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details