aryan

Where does the word "aryan" come from? It comes from Sanskrit arya, passing through Old Persian and German before entering English (1839).

Aryan’s story begins in Sanskrit: arya meant “noble; compatriot.” An ethno-cultural self-designation meaning roughly 'noble, of good family'. By ancient, the word had taken hold in Old Persian as ariya. The related Iranian self-designation, source of the name 'Iran'. From there it passed into German as Arier by 1819. Philologist Friedrich Schlegel linked the word to Indo-European studies. It reached English by 1839 as Aryan. Max Müller popularized it as a language term; Nazi racial ideology later misused it. Today, aryan means historically a self-designation of the ancient Indo-Iranian peoples; in the 19th-20th centuries, misappropriated as a pseudo-scientific racial category.

1. Stage 1 · Sanskrit · ancient arya "noble; compatriot", an ethno-cultural self-designation meaning roughly 'noble, of good family'.
2. Stage 2 · Old Persian · ancient ariya "the Iranian peoples' name for themselves", the related Iranian self-designation, source of the name 'Iran'.
3. Stage 3 · German · 1819 Arier "the reconstructed Indo-European-speaking peoples", philologist Friedrich Schlegel linked the word to Indo-European studies.
4. Stage 4 · English · 1839 Aryan "historically, a term for Indo-Iranian peoples or languages", Max Müller popularized it as a language term; Nazi racial ideology later misused it.