Adjacent Words

Aryan definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of or relating to the former Indo-European people; "Indo- European migrations" [syn: Indo-European, Indo-Aryan, Aryan] n
1: (according to Nazi doctrine) a Caucasian person of Nordic descent (and not a Jew)
2: a member of the prehistoric people who spoke Proto-Indo European [syn: Aryan, Indo-European]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Sanskrit ?rya noble, belonging to an ancient people of northern India speaking an Indo-European dialect Date: 1839 1. Indo-European 2. a. of or relating to a hypothetical ethnic type illustrated by or descended from early speakers of Indo-European languages b. Nordic c. — used in Nazism to designate a supposed master race of non-Jewish Caucasians usually having Nordic features 3. of or relating to Indo-Iranian or its speakers II. noun Date: 1851 1. Indo-European 2. a. Nordic b. gentile

Britannica Concise

Prehistoric people that settled in Iran and N India. In the 19th cent. there arose a notion, propagated by the Comte de Gobineau and later by his disciple H. S. Chamberlain, of an "Aryan race": people who spoke Indo-European, especially Germanic, languages and lived in N Europe. These Aryans were considered to be superior to all other races. Though repudiated by numerous scholars, incl. F. Boas, the notion was seized on by A. Hitler and made the basis of the Nazi policy of exterminating Jews, Gypsies, and other "non-Aryans." See also racism.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. 1 a member of the peoples speaking any of the languages of the Indo-European (esp. Indo-Iranian) family. 2 the parent language of this family. 3 improperly. (in Nazi ideology) a Caucasian not of Jewish descent. --adj. of or relating to Aryan or the Aryans. Etymology: Skr. aryas noble

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Aryan Ar"yan ([aum]r"yan or [a^]r"[i^]*an), a. Of or pertaining to the people called Aryans; Indo-European; Indo-Germanic; as, the Aryan stock, the Aryan languages.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Aryan Ar"yan ([aum]r"yan or [a^]r"[i^]*an), n. [Skr. [=a]rya excellent, honorable; akin to the name of the country Iran, and perh. to Erin, Ireland, and the early name of this people, at least in Asia.] 1. 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.