The term 'barbarian' was a word the ancient Greeks used for anyone who didn't speak Greek and were apparently therefore uneducated lowlives. 'Foreigners' in a broader sense. The word would later be used by Arab conquerors refering to the indigenous people of North Africa, mainly the Berbers. An no, that name is not etymologically connected to 'barbarians'.
If you're done with Tik Tok and Netflix for the day and therefore have a few minutes to spare, here's a very interesting piece on the subject.
In Dutch it's called a 'Geuzennaam'. 'Geuzen' being the name the Spanish oppressors gave the Dutch resistance a couple of centuries ago was supposed to be derogative but they started proudly calling themselves Geuzen. Derived by the Spanish from the French word 'gueux' for 'lowlifes, scum, filthy beggars'. In short.
To defy the Spanish the Dutch stole their recipe fot bitterballen (that's not a joke but true. Bigly) and started wearing the given nickname as a batch of honour.
The Spanish got their asses kicked at Haarlem by a group of women lead by a woman called Kenau after all the men had fled from town and even the Dutch army at the time refused to come to the aide of Haarlem. 'Kenau' is now a derogative word used for strong, independent women who won't listen to their fathers and husbands. And some women use it as a badge of honour.
The nazis used the word 'Untermensch' to refer to people who were less 'genetically perfect' than the Arian race. Which I still find odd as the nazi's hated people whose skin colour was darker than that of H!tler. The Arian people were basically from India.
But no homosexual, Jew, communist, union member, Freemason, handicapped person or gypsy ever proudly called their own people 'Untermensch'.
It seems not every derogative term is used as a 'Geuzennaam' (badge of honour).
Can you think of other groups of people who started proudly calling themselves the name an oppressive force used to dehumanize them?
Interesting little known fact: the French started calling the Arabs (just like 'the west' a very broad term) 'Oriental Semites'; everyone speaking a semitic language is a semite. Jews, Ethiopians and Arabs alike. Making everyone who hates Jews, Ethiopians and/or Arabs an antisemite. Just so you know.
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