a. and sb. [modern a. F. barbaresque (= It. barbaresco) belonging to Barbary; cf. also Pg. barbarisco barbarous. See BARBAR and -ESQUE, and cf. BARBARY.]
A. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to Barbary in Africa.
1824. Galt, Rothelan, III. 158. A red Barbaresque nightcap.
1881. Times, 18 April, 4/1. That France should not be permitted to increase her Barbaresque possessions.
2. Barbarous in style, esp. in reference to art. [Cf. picturesque.]
1823. De Quincey, Language (1860), 124. Barbarism … generates its own barbaresque standards of taste. Ibid. (1857), Sketches, Wks. VI. 159. Architecture … barbaresque—rich in decoration, at times colossal in proportions, but unsymmetrical.
1859. Masson, Brit. Novelists, iv. 220. The … outstanding barbaresque and primitive in English society.
B. sb. A native of Barbary.
1804. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 21. Our interests against the Barbaresques.
1862. J. M. Ludlow, Hist. U. S., 74. It was considered more honourable than any [peace] concluded for a century by a Christian power with the Barbaresques.
