Definition of aryan Aryan

/ɑˈɹiʌn/ - [areeun] - Ar•y•an

We found 20 definitions of aryan from 7 different sources.

What does aryan mean?

Noun
aryan - a member of the prehistoric people who spoke Proto-Indo European
		Indo-European
		primitive person, primitive a word serving as the basis for inflected or derived forms; "`pick' is the primitive from which `picket' is derived"
aryan - (according to Nazi doctrine) a Caucasian person of Nordic descent (and not a Jew)

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aryan (Noun)
A member of an alleged master race comprised of non- Jewish Caucasians, especially those of Nordic or Germanic descent.
aryan (Noun)
A person of Caucasian ethnicity; a white non- Jew.
aryan (Noun)
A Caucasian racist, often one who is an Aryan in the first sense.
aryan (Noun)
An Indo-European, a Proto-Indo-European.
aryan (Noun)
An Indo-Iranian.
aryan (Noun)
A subdivision of the Caucasian race, which comprised the Aryans, the Semites, and the Hamites, or the accompanying linguistic subdivision.
aryan (Adjective)
Pertaining, in racial theories, to the alleged Aryan master race .
aryan (Adjective)
Pertaining to the Caucasian ethnicity.
aryan (Adjective)
Pertaining to Caucasian racists or their organisations, theories, etc.
aryan (Adjective)
Of or pertaining to Indo-Iranian peoples, cultures, and languages.
aryan (Adjective)
Of or pertaining to Indo-European peoples, cultures and languages.

aryan (n.)
One of a primitive people supposed to have lived in prehistoric times, in Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea, and north of the Hindoo Koosh and Paropamisan Mountains, and to have been the stock from which sprang the Hindoo, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other races; one of that ethnological division of mankind called also Indo-European or Indo-Germanic.
aryan (n.)
The language of the original Aryans.
aryan (a.)
Of or pertaining to the people called Aryans; Indo-European; Indo-Germanic; as, the Aryan stock, the Aryan languages.

aryan
A racial grouping term used in the period of the late 19th century to the mid-20th century to describe multiple peoples. It has been variously used to describe all Indo-Europeans in general (spanning from India to Europe), the original Aryan people specifically in Persia and India, and most controversially through Nazi misinterpretation, the Nordic or Germanic peoples.

aryan
ar′i-an, or ā′ri-an, adj. relating to the family of nations otherwise called Indo-European (comprehending the inhabitants of Europe—except the Basques, Turks, Magyars, and Finns—and those of Armenia, Persia, and North Hindustan), or to their languages—Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, Lettic.—v.t. Aryanise′. [L. arianus, belonging to Ariana or Aria (Gr. Areia), the east part of Ancient Persia—Sans. Arya (cf. Old Pers. Ariya, and Irān, Persia), often traced to a root ar, plough.]

Aryan is the name that an ancient people of Iran called themselves. Descendants of the Aryans include speakers of the Persian language and of Hindi, a language of India. About three thousand years ago, both Iranians and Indians used the name "Aryan" to mean their shared ancestors, as well as "nobles."

Nazism.

In the 19th century, some Europeans began to use this name for the Nordic peoples of Europe, as a "pure," "noble" and "superior" race they claimed were descended from the original Aryans.

The theory that the Aryans first came from Europe became especially accepted in Germany. It was widely believed that the "Vedic Aryans" were the same people as the Goths, Vandals and other ancient Germanic peoples who brought the Western Roman Empire to an end. This idea was often mixed with anti-Semitic ideas.

The idea of racism that this means has been put aside by modern scientists, who also disagree with the idea that the original Aryans ever lived in Europe. However, this Master Race theory became a main idea for Nazis.