Barbarian really just meant “those who are not of our ‘superior’ society and culture.” It’s purely an exonym used to describe other groups. If you were not Greek (or later Roman), the you were a barbarian.
So if you're playing a Barbarian in D&D, does that mean you spontaneously lose your class when you're among your own people? Or is it that PCs are just barred from the class entirely, since Barbarians are always those other people?
Or is it simply the case that you chose to work off of a definition that makes absolutely no sense in the context of talking about a D&D class?
Your argument is specious.
No. Definitions are not arguments, specious or otherwise.
Even synonyms have unshared shades of meaning. You can't just assume that everything that applies to one word also applies to another.
Who says I did? You're assuming I've assumed things. I considered the fact, for instance, that one of the things Barbarians refer to is a native of Barbary or Barbary Pirates. But that doesn't exactly square with the skills and abilities for the class. They've got skills for wilderness survival (just called survival) and a couple of related skills to that. But not a profession/sailing skill or knowledge/navigation. So I have to reject that as a definition as it has no place in this context. And a lot of others went out the window, too. The one I'm using is reasonable and consistent. And it's actually on topic.
Also, just glanced at a dictionary,
Well, maybe have enough basic respect to do a little more research than that next time. And be a little more thoughtful in ensuring what findings you present actually fit the context and address the issue at hand.
there was no mention of "inhabiting their native land." Easy counterpoint: the vikings in North America for a short while were both savage barbarians, but certainly were not indigenous.
For a short while doesn't count for anything. A few hours ago I walked to the store. I mean, I came back. But are you going to say that during the 10 minutes I shopped that my home was no longer my home? I've got friends who are Portuguese immigrants who have by this point lived 90% of their lives here. Some of them are even American citizens. And their big plan when they retire is to go back to Portugal where the cost of living is lower and Social Security is not taxable for 5 years. Are they not Portuguese having lived the majority of their lives in America? Your easy counterpoint is complete nonsense and a weak attempt at playing word games.
More importantly as it pertains to anything relevant here, does an indigenous person suddenly lose their skills or abilities when they cross a border or sea? Do they lose their culture, religion, or language? Does their ancestry change? Are there any changes at all to their characteristics? No? Then insofar that this is a discussion about a D&D class, you're entirely off-topic.
Unless it was, you know, short for classification. Armor classification. Troop classification. Weapon classification. The types of things one might find in a war game.
My first thought exactly. My second thought, though, was to remember when I was a kid, that the word "class" made me think of like a class in school. Not social class. I could imagine taking a class learning how to fight. Or how to thieve. Or how to use magic. My cousin attended catechism every Sunday, so there could definitely be a cleric class.
And then my third thought was, while D&D definitely does have some notes on social class, Gary focused more on it on his later fantasy RPGs. And in those, Vocations in Dangerous Journeys, Orders in Lejendary Adventure, those class-like structures were also closely tied with social class. Once you realize that this is a thing Gary did consistently everywhere else, you have to wonder if it was also intended this way in D&D and that it was just one of those things that didn't survive the cutting room floor.
I think there's something to it. That Gary chose class to mean, yes, classification, obviously, but that these classes were also classes you could have in school (hence training requirements to level up) and also tied into social class (hence name level, the ability to attract followers, and in the 1E PHB, some of the classes even had notes as to taxes they were entitled to collect, but not all classes, because some classes were classier than others). Which also meant those outside of the dominant social structure (demi-humans) might experience limits in the level to which they can rise due to, if nothing else, "glass ceilings."
Class was the perfect term and no game designer standing on the shoulder of giants is going to improve on the term, even though they might frequently believe they have.
Here is the problem. Words often have multiple meanings. Calling a fighter a class is just fine. Everyone knows what it means.
Playing the definition game with the socially stunted is a waste of time.
Yeah. In 2022, any wanker can google search a cherry picked definition of a word in 30 seconds while still jerking off with their other hand. There's nothing impressive about it. There's nothing of substance that comes from it. A sticky keyboard doesn't count. There's the famous quote from Bill Clinton, "it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" to wit it took me less than 30 seconds to pull up Meriam-Webster online and find 8 different definitions for is. Imagine the combinatorics if we did this for every word in a sentence.
Yeah. Saying it's socially stunted is putting it mildly. The standard for relatively honest (good faith) and intelligent (meeting minimum standards as having something to add) discourse should be that the listener correctly identifies the intended definitions of the speaker. And here I'm complaining about people not even meeting a far, far lower standard of confining themselves to definitions that are actually make sense given the topic.