The English word "Aryan" (originally spelt "Arian") was borrowed from the Sanskrit word ?rya, ????, in the 18th century and thought to be the self-designation used by all Indo-European people.

Origins

Philologist J.P. Mallory argues that "As an ethnic designation, the word is most properly limited to the Indo-Iranians, and most justly to the latter where it still gives its name to the country Iran.

Sanskrit

In early Vedic literature, the term ?ry?varta (Sanskrit: ?????????, abode of the Aryans) was the name given to northern India, where the Indo-Aryan culture was based. The Manusm?ti (2.22) gives the name ?ry?varta to "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern (Bay of Bengal) to the Western Sea (Arabian Sea)".

Initially the term was used as a national name to designate those who worshipped the Vedic deities (especially Indra) and followed Vedic culture (e.g. performance of sacrifice, Yajna).

Proto-Indo-Iranian

The Sanskrit term comes from proto-Indo-Iranian *arya- or *aryo-, the name used by the Indo-Iranians to designate themselves. The Zend airya 'venerable' and Old Persian ariya are also derivates of *aryo-, and are also self-designations.

In Iranian languages, the original self-identifier lives on in ethnic names like "Alans" and "Iron". Similarly, the name of Iran is the Persian word for land/place of the Aryans.

Pre-Proto-Indo-Iranians

The Proto-Indo-Iranian term is hypothesized to have proto-Indo-European origins, while according to Szemerényi it is probably a Near-Eastern loanword from the Ugaritic ary, kinsmen.

It has been postulated the Proto-Indo-European root word is *h_aerós with the meanings "members of one's own (ethnic) group, peer, freeman" as well as the Indo-Iranian meaning of Aryan. Derived from it were words like

• the Hittite prefix ar?- meaning member of one's own group, peer, companion and friend;
• Old Irish aire, meaning "freeman" and "noble"
• Gaulish personal names with Ario-
• Avestan airya- meaning Aryan, Iranian in the larger sense
• Old Indic ari- meaning attached to, faithful, devoted person and kinsman
• Old Indic aryá- meaning kind, favourable, attached to and devoted
• Old Indic árya- meaning Aryan, faithful to the Vedic religion.

The word *h_aerós itself is believed to have come from the root *h_aer- meaning "put together". The original meaning in Proto-Indo-European had a clear emphasis on the "in-group status" as distinguished from that of outsiders, particularly those captured and incorporated into the group as slaves. While in Anatolia, the base word has come to emphasize personal relationship, in Indo-Iranian the word has taken a more ethnic meaning.

A review of numerous other ideas, and the various problems with each is given by Oswald Szemerényi.

Usage

Scholarly usage

• Proto-Indo-Europeans: during the 19th century, it was proposed that "Aryan" was also the self-designation of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, a hypothesis which has been abandoned.
• "Aryan language family": the Indo-Aryan languages (including the Dardic), Iranian languages and Nuristani languages,
• Indo-Aryan languages specifically, also called Indic.

Contemporary usage

Indian and Iranian nationalism

The term "Aryan" is used by Indian nationalists and Iranian nationalists to refer themselves.

Nazism and white supremacy

During the 19th century it was proposed that "Aryan" was also the self-designation of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Based on speculations that the Proto-Indo-European homeland was located in northern Europe, a 19th-century hypothesis which is now abandoned, the word developed a racialist meaning.

The Nazis used the word "Aryan" to describe people in a racial sense. The Nazi official Alfred Rosenberg believed that the Nordic race was descended from Proto-Aryans, who he believed had prehistorically dwelt on the North German Plain and who had ultimately originated from the lost continent of Atlantis. According to Nazi racial theory, the term "Aryan" described the Germanic peoples. However, a satisfactory definition of "Aryan" remained problematic during Nazi Germany.

The Nazis considered the most purest Aryans to be those that belonged to the "Nordic race" physical ideal, known as the "master race" during Nazi Germany. Although the physical ideal of the Nazi racial theorists was typically the tall, fair-haired and light-eyed Nordic individual, such theorists accepted the fact that a considerable variety of hair and eye colour existed within the racial categories they recognised. For example, Adolf Hitler and many Nazi officials had dark hair and were still considered members of the Aryan race under Nazi racial doctrine, because the determination of an individual's racial type depended on a preponderance of many characteristics in an individual rather than on just one defining feature.

In September 1935, the Nazis passed the Nuremberg Laws. All Aryan Reich citizens were required to prove their Aryan ancestry, one way was to obtain an Ahnenpass by providing proof through baptismal certificates that all four grandparents were of Aryan descent.

In December 1935, the Nazis founded Lebensborn to counteract the falling Aryan birth rates in Germany, and to promote Nazi eugenics.

In Indian/Sanskrit literature

In Sanskrit and related Indic languages, ?rya means "one who does noble deeds; a noble one". ?ry?varta "abode of the ?ryas" is a common name for North India in Sanskrit literature. Manusm?ti (2.22) gives the name to "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern Sea to the Western Sea". The title ?rya was used with various modifications throughout the Indian Subcontinent. Kharavela, the Emperor of Kalinga of around 1 BCE, is referred to as an ?rya in the Hathigumpha inscriptions of the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The Gurjara-Pratihara rulers in the 10th century were titled "Maharajadhiraja of ?ry?varta". Various Indian religions, chiefly Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, use the term ?rya as an epithet of honour; a similar usage is found in the name of Arya Samaj.

In Ramayana and Mahabharata, ?rya is used as an honorific for many characters including Hanuman.

In Iranian literature

Unlike the several meanings connected with ?rya- in Old Indo-Aryan, the Old Persian term only has an ethnic meaning. That is in contrast to Indian usage, in which several secondary meanings evolved, the meaning of ar- as a self-identifier is preserved in Iranian usage, hence the word "Iran". The airya meant "Iranian", and Iranian anairya meant and means "non-Iranian". Arya may also be found as an ethnonym in Iranian languages, e.g., Alan and Persian Iran and Ossetian Ir/Iron The name is itself equivalent to Aryan, where Iran means "land of the Aryans," and has been in use since Sassanid times.

The Avesta clearly uses airya/airyan as an ethnic name (Vd. 1; Yt. 13.143-44, etc.), where it appears in expressions such as airy?fi; dai??h?v? "Iranian lands, peoples", airy?.šayan?m "land inhabited by Iranians", and airyan?m va?j? va?huy?fi;