Barbara
proper nouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈbɑːb(ə)ɹə//
- United States//ˈbɑɹb(ə)ɹə//
A female given name from Latin.
proper noun
- 1
A female given name from Latin.
My mother had a maid call'd Barbara; / She was in love, and he she lov'd prov'd mad / And did forsake her; […]
All in the merrye month of May / When greene buds they were swellin / Yong Jemmye Grove on his death-bed lay / For love of Barbara Allen.
"Everybody in the next generation," suggested Dick, "will be named Peter or Barbara - because at present all piquant literary characters are named Peter or Barbara."
'Barbara?' Barr―baah―rrah. Barbarian woman. Wild. Untamed. An incredibly sexy name.
- 2
A syllogism in which all three propositions are of the form "All X are Y" or "X is a Y".
If you see a girl you like, prove it to her by Barbara and Celarent all the way to Fresison or whatever the logician's Omega is — I forget.
Etymology
* From Latin Barbara, the name of Saint Barbara, feminine form of barbarus, from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “strange, foreign”). Doublet of Varvara. * (logic): From the given name; chosen because it has three A's in it representing universal affirmatives.
Forms
- plural
- Barbaras