The great Ojibwa recently wrote an article explaining that many believe the term “barbarian” came from Greeks mocking others who said “bar, bar, bar.” Likely true. Mocking people from neighboring regions is a popular human pass time.
Perhaps also, the word derives from the same root as the Aryan-Vedic God of the Hindu pantheon Varuna.
How did the word “bar” originate? And why are lawyers sometimes called “barristers.” Why speak of “passing the Bar?”
Perhaps the term “barrister” derives from an old answer to a common problem: How to civilly resolve disputes.
One aid is to use a bar to separate the court, the litigants, and the witnesses from the public during the dispute resolution process.
Those who “pass the bar” must accept a different rule set from the public, much as the boxers agree to different rules than the spectators. Those who pass the bar must agree to accept the Judge's courtroom authority, such as the contempt power.
US and English courtrooms are similarly designed. In England, Barristers argue in court, while solicitors work with clients and do other work. Here in the US, both functions are combined. Thus, a barrister can pass the courtroom's bar and argue to the court while a solicitor normally stays outside, with the rest of the public.
At the center towards the back of the courtroom is the Judge’s bench, which is higher than everything else in the courtroom. Beneath the bench is an area called the "well" which no one is supposed to enter.
To one side of the bench sits the clerk. To the other, is a witness box, which separating a witness from the rest of the courtroom. The witness box is elevated, but not so high as the judge’s seat.
The jury box is typically close to the witness box. The box separates jurors from the judge, the witness and the litigants. The jury box is also slightly elevated, but below the Judge’s bench and the witness box.
The litigants, and their “barristers” sit at a long table, in front of the well and beneath judge, jury, and witnesses.
All of these areas are separated from the public area by a long bar, with only one entry. This bar separates the public from the proceedings. Only the Court staff, the litigants, and their counsel are permitted to “pass the bar.” A member of the public who desires to watch the proceedings is required to sit outside the bar. In the US, attorneys can bring their clients past the bar to counsel's table. Witnesses are allowed to pass the bar only with the Judge's express permission.
So it is reasonable to conclude that the terms “pass the bar” and “barrister” derive from the agreement certain men and women, by training and license, gain the right to admittance “past the bar” and can move into that space without the need for specific permission from the Judge.
Why the boxes? Space, protection and control. The ancient court room design helps to limit a common problem. Litigants are at Court to resolve a dispute they cannot resolve themselves. Separating people helps keep the dispute resolution civil, trying to remove force or violence from influencing the trial.
By using a bar to separate the proceedings from the public, the bar helps the Judge run the Court and keeps spectators from interfering, just as the boxes protect the litigants and jury. Likewise, the prohibition against entering the well is a rule designed to protect the judge.
The Aryan Vedic Sanskrit language names a god “Lord Varuna the Just.” Early Vestic (pre-Hindu) mythology speaks of Varuna as a Western God, coming from the sea.
In the earliest stories, Varuna is described as the God of Law, a God endowed with the ability to discern lies. Later stories describe him as a sea god, or force of nature, aligned with Mitra, a name similar to Persian myths. But in the older stories, just like judges in today’s court rooms, Varuna enforces civil order and contracts.
Scholars generally accept the proposition that many English and Sanskrit words derive from the same Aryan Vedic roots as Aryan tribes, maybe starting around Iran or the now Ukrainian steppes, spread East and West.
Curious that Varuna was the God of resolving disputes; and the root “Var” is so similar to the English word “bar,” which also applies when discussing a method to resolve disputes.
Perhaps some great leader Varuna gave us the root word bar, both deriving from a means devised some 4,000 odd years ago as good method to resolve disputes: keep the proceedings separate from the public to allow for civil resolution of disputes. Seems logical to me.
As other writes including Kosian Ojibwa wrote, Greeks later mocked other peoples whose language sounded to Greek ears like "bar, bar, bar." Maybe the barbarians were appealing to Lord Varuna, having been cheated on some contract.