arian

3 definitions found

arian - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  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 Hindu Kush and Paropamisan
        Mountains, and to have been the stock from which sprang
        the Hindu, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic,
        Slavonic, and other races; one of that ethnological
        division of mankind called also Indo-European or
        Indo-Germanic.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The language of the original Aryans. [Written also
        Arian.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Nazism) a non-Jewish caucasian of Nordic stock; -- a
        classification used by Nazis, having no anthropological
        basis. [Written also Arian.]
        [PJC]

  Arian \Ar"ian\, a. & n. (Ethnol.)
     See Aryan.
     [1913 Webster]

  Arian \A"ri*an\, a. [L. Arianus.]
     Pertaining to Arius, a presbyter of the church of Alexandria,
     in the fourth century, or to the doctrines of Arius, who held
     Christ to be inferior to God the Father in nature and
     dignity, though the first and noblest of all created beings.
     -- n. One who adheres to or believes the doctrines of Arius.
     --Mosheim.
     [1913 Webster]