# Need Latin help **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-latin-help/112760 "2002-06-07T00:17:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Myst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@Myst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myst)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-latin-help/112760/1 "2002-06-07T00:17:02Z")
For a story I’m writing, I need a _catchy_ name for a group of people that would mean something along the lines of barbarians, unevolved, uncivilized, cruel etc. Help much appreciated… ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-latin-help/112760/2 "2002-06-07T01:20:36Z")
Just a few… Torva (savage: adj.) Crudiores (less cooked, rawer: comparative adj.) Rudis Gens (uncultivated tribe: n.) Atrox (harsh, cruel: adj.) Bestia (beasts: n.) I’m partial to “torva” myself, I’ve always liked the sound of it. Although, actually, “barbarian” is latin for–well–barbarian, so if you’re going for accuracy, it doesn’t get much better than that. 🙂 Disclaimer–I haven’t been in a latin class in over six years and I’m not positive all of my tense/number/gender word endings are correct. Latin sucks for that–the same word has thirty different spellings depending on it’s use. I’m sure someone with a fresher memory will be along to correct me at some point. good luck! bella ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-latin-help/112760/3 "2002-06-07T02:02:21Z")
[Torvald’s](http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/) savage penguin !