What is latin for root of the barbarians?

Answer 1

Rhubarb.

==============================================

Answer:

Firstly, the Latin for "root of the barbarians" can only be radix barbarorum or stirps barbarorum - neither have anything at all to do with rhubarb, which comes from Greek, not Latin and has a different meaning.

The idea of a Latin origin with the meaning "root of the barbarians" is utterly false and it seems to have begun with some modern child's game in the USA.

Secondly, the Romans, like all modern vegetable growers, knew perfectly well that rhubarb is not a root - carrots, radish, turnips, parsnips are root crops; rhubarb is not, since it is the stem of the plant that is eaten. Nobody would ever call rhubarb any kind of root (unless they happen to be a games designer instead of a gardener).

Answer 2

The idea that "rhubarb" has any meaning such as you state is entirely false (although widely reported). The Latin word for "root" is radix, from which the modern word radish comes.

In fact the name rhubarb comes from the classical Greek term rheo, meaning "to flow", referring to its laxative properties, plus Greek barbaros meaning foreign.

Answer 3

"Radix Barbarorum."