Aryan
/ˈɛər.i.ən/noun
A term historically used for certain Indo-Iranian peoples and languages; in modern racist ideology, a pseudoscientific label misused to claim a supposed superior “race.”
Did you know?In the oldest Indo-Iranian texts, related forms of this word were a status and identity term, but 19th-century racial theorists ripped it out of context and turned it into propaganda.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-Iranian
PII
*arya-
“noble, one of the in-group people”
Old Persian
OP
ariya-
“Aryan; noble; the self-designation of certain peoples”
Avestan
Av
airya-
“Aryan; belonging to the people; noble”
Sanskrit
Skt
ā́rya-
“noble, honorable; an ethnic and cultural self-designation”
19th Century
English
Aryan
“A scholarly term for Indo-Iranian peoples and languages, later misused in racist pseudoscience”
Modern English
English
Aryan
“A historical linguistic and ethnic term, or a racist ideological misuse depending on context”
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