(in Nazi ideology) a Caucasian of non-Jewish descent, esp of the Nordic type
2.
a member of any of the peoples supposedly descended from the Indo-Europeans, esp a speaker of an Iranian or Indic language in ancient times
adjective
3.
of, relating to, or characteristic of an Aryan or Aryans
adjective, noun
4. archaic
Indo-European
Word origin
C19: from Sanskrit ārya of noble birth
Aryan in American English
(ˈæriən; ˈɛriən)
adjective
1. Obsolete
designating or of the Indo-European language family
2. Obsolete
Indo-Iranian
3.
of the Aryans
noun
4. Obsolete
the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European family
5.
a person belonging to, or supposed to be a descendant of, the prehistoric peoples that spoke this language
Aryan has no validity as an ethnological term, but it has been so used, notoriously bythe Nazis, to mean “a Caucasoid of non-Jewish descent,” “a person of Nordic descent,”etc.
Word origin
< Sans āzya-, noble (used as tribal name to distinguish from indigenous races) > Avestan airya-nam, Iran1; ? akin to Gr aristos, best or Hittite arawa-, free