Barbarossa

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian Barbarossa, from barba (“beard”) + rossa (“red”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌbɑː.bəˈɹəʊ.sə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌbɑɹ.bəˈɹoʊ.sə/
• Rhymes: -əʊsə

Proper noun

Barbarossa

1. A surname from Italian.

   David Barbarossa

   Theodore Cotillo Barbarossa

   • 2024 November 5, Lorenzo Tondo, quoting Luke Meyer, “Trump staffer fired from Republican party for being a white supremacist”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 March 2025:

     Politico reported it had identified Luke Meyer, 24, a Pennsylvania-based field staffer who worked for five months for the former president, as the online white nationalist who used the pseudonym Alberto Barbarossa. […] After being presented with evidence by Politico linking him to the Barbarossa alias, Meyer admitted the connection and confessed that he had been concealing his online identity from fellow members of Trump Force 47, the arm of the Trump campaign overseeing volunteer mobilisation efforts.

2. An epithet or nickname applied to certain historical characters.

   Frederick Barbarossa (Holy Roman Emperor 1122–1190)

3. (historical) Operation Barbarossa: the 1941 Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, named after the emperor.

Translations

epithet of certain historical characters

• Armenian: Շիկամորուս (Šikamorus)
• Russian: Барбаро́сса (Barbaróssa)

See also

• Redbeard

Italian

Etymology

A nickname, from barba (“beard”) +‎ rossa (“red”).

Proper noun

Barbarossa m or f by sense

1. a surname