Ar"yan (är"yan or
ăr"ĭ*an), n. [Skr. ārya
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 Hindoo Koosh 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 (är"yan or
ăr"ĭ*an), a. Of or pertaining
to the people called Aryans; Indo-European; Indo-Germanic; as, the
Aryan stock, the Aryan languages.