aryan Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (according to Nazi doctrine) a Caucasian person of Nordic descent (and not a Jew)
  2. noun a member of the prehistoric people who spoke Proto-Indo European
    Indo-European.
  3. adjective of or relating to the former Indo-European people
    Indo-European; Indo-Aryan.
    • Indo-European migrations

WordNet

Ar"yan noun
Etymology
Skr. arya 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.
Definitions
  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 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.
  2. The language of the original Aryans. Written also Arian.
Ar"yan adjective
Definitions
  1. Of or pertaining to the people called Aryans; Indo-European; Indo-Germanic; as, the Aryan stock, the Aryan languages.

Webster 1913