The quality of being barbarous; extreme cruelty, savagery, or an act of brutal violence or harshness.
From Old French 'barbarte' and Latin 'barbaritas,' derived from 'barbarus' (uncivilized or foreign). The term emerged in the 13th century to describe extreme inhumanity.
The concept of 'barbarity' has always been relative—what one culture called barbarity, another called justice or warfare, which is why this word appears so often in justifications for conquest!
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