aryan

3 definitions found

aryan - 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]

  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.
     [1913 Webster]

aryan - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Aryan
      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]