Aryan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: note: without the Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɛəɹi.ən/
note: without the Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɛəjən/
note: without the Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɑːɹi.ən/
note: without the Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɑːjən/
note: General American, Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɛɹi.ən/
note: General American, Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɛɹjən/
note: General American, Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɑɹi.ən/
note: General American, Mary–marry–merry merger
ipa: /ˈɑɹjən/
rhymes: -ɛəɹiən
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)jən
rhymes: -ɑːɹiən
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)jən
homophone: Arian
homophone: Arean
Forms: form: Aryans
form: Arian
Etymology: From Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble; noble one”) + -n. The Sanskrit word is from Proto-Indo-Iranian *áryas (the original Indo-Iranian autonym). Borrowed into English in the 19th century, at first as a term for the Indo-Iranian languages, and later partly extended to the Indo-European languages and peoples following a theory by Friedrich Schlegel that connected the Indo-Iranian words arya/ā́rya with German Ehre (“honor”) and some older Germanic names, thus assuming that it was the original Indo-European autonym meaning "the honorable people". The original meaning of the Indo-Iranian autonym and its possible Indo-European origin/cognates are disputed (see the Wikipedia article for further details).
The same Proto-Indo-Iranian root is the ultimate source of the country name Iran.
Senses: examples: text: This short sketch of the changes that take place among those races that are only the depositories of a culture also furnishes a picture of the development and the activity and the disappearance of those who are the true founders of culture on this earth, namely the Aryans themselves.
ref: 1925–26, Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, translation from German to English by James Murphy, 1939
topics: human-sciences
mysticism
philosophy
sciences
glosses: A member of a race defined variously as comprising people of Germanic descent, in the narrowest sense, or all non-Jewish Caucasians, in the broadest sense
examples: text: One transmission advantage may have been that espousing Aryan-supremacist and overtly Nazi ideology could have been a roundabout way of announcing, […]
ref: 2001, Robert J. Sternberg, James C. Kaufman, The Evolution of Intelligence, page 300:
text: The point is not that southern Republicans are edging toward Aryan-supremacist views but that the rhetoric of their campaigns and some of their political […]
ref: 2002, David R. Goldfield, Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History, page 263:
qualifier: Nazism or white supremacy
glosses: A person of Caucasian (white / Northern European) ethnicity; a white non-Jew.
examples: text: Cal tried to think of words that would convey Wolfgang Stahl to the ears and hands of a woman who’d never seen him and never, until now, had to imagine him.
 […]
 ‘Why not . . . why not think of your chap as a type? Tell me what type you’d sort of put him into.’
 ‘Sort of?’
 ‘You know . . . roughly.’
 ‘He’s an Aryan.’
 ‘Ah, one of those, eh? Odd when you think about it. I mean. How did they arrive at blue-eyed blonds as a racial type? Hitler’s short and dark and looks like Charlie Chaplin. Goebbels is short and ugly and looks like a rat. And as for Goering – well is that what Billy Bunter grew up to be?’
ref: 2004, John Lawton, Bluffing Mr. Churchill:
glosses: A Caucasian racist, often one who is an Aryan in the first sense.
examples: 1905, Rossiter Johnson, LL.D., chief editor, The Great Events by Famous Historians, volume IV
We have seen that when the Goths first entered Roman territory they were driven on by a vast migration of the Asiatic Huns. These wild and hideous tribes then […] appeared upon the Rhine, and in enormous numbers penetrated Gaul. No people had yet understood them, none had even checked their career. The white races seemed helpless against this "yellow peril", this "Scourge of God", as Attila was called. Goths and Romans and all the varied tribes which were ranging in perturbed whirl through unhappy Gaul laid aside their lesser enmities and met in common cause against this terrible invader. The battle of Châlons, 451, was the most tremendous struggle in which Turanian was ever matched against Aryan, the one huge bid of the stagnant, unprogressive races, for earth’s mastery.
glosses: An Indo-European, a Proto-Indo-European.
glosses: An Indo-Iranian.
examples: text: [The] Caucasian race includes two sub-races, — the Xantho-chroic and Melanochroic of Huxley. The seat of this race is Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia, its linguistic division being into Aryans, Semites, and Hamites.
ref: 1892, Charles Morris, The Aryan Race: Its Origins and Its Achievements:
text: The surest principle of classification is based on language, but the results must be tested by a study of the physical characteristics of the various races. According to this method of classification, the races of the world may be divided as follows: Aryan, Semitic, Hamitic, Turanian, Negroid. The name Caucasian is generally applied to the first three divisions, — Aryans, Semites, and Hamites. Aryan. — This includes the ancient Hindus […] the Persians, Greeks, Italians, Celts, Teutons, and Slavs.
ref: 1900, Frank Moore Colby, Outlines of General History:
topics: anthropology
ethnography
human-sciences
sciences
glosses: A subdivision of the Caucasian racial and linguistic grouping, when that grouping is defined as consisting of Aryans, Semites, and Hamites.
Derived terms: Aryanism
Aryanization
Aryanize
Aryanness
Graeco-Aryan
Indo-Aryan
Mitanni-Aryan