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Aryan or Arya (/ˈɛəriən/;[1] Indo-Iranian *arya) is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*an-arya).[2][3] In Ancient India, the term ā́rya was used by the Indo-Aryan speakers of the Vedic period as an endonym (self-designation) and in reference to a region known as Āryāvarta ('Land of the Aryans'), where the Indo-Aryan culture emerged.[4] In the Avesta scriptures, ancient Iranian peoples similarly used the term airya to designate themselves as an ethnic group, and in reference to their mythical homeland, Airyanǝm Vaēǰō ('expanse of the Aryas' or 'stretch of the Aryas').[5][6] The stem also forms the etymological source of place names such as Alania (*Aryāna-) and Iran (*Aryānām).[7]
Although the stem *arya may be of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin,[8] its use as an ethnocultural self-designation is only attested among Indo-Iranian peoples and there is no evidence of its use as an ethnonym among 'Proto-Indo-Europeans'. In any case, scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the idea of being an Aryan was religious, cultural, and linguistic, not racial.[9][10][11]
In the 1850s, the term 'Aryan' was adopted as a racial category by the aristocratic French writer Arthur de Gobineau, who, through the later works of his followers such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, influenced the Nazi racial ideology.[12] Under Nazi rule (1933–1945), the term officially applied to most inhabitants of Germany excluding Jews, Roma, and Slavs (mostly Slovaks, Czechs, Poles and Russians).[13][14] Those classified as 'non-Aryans,' especially Jews,[15] were discriminated against before suffering the systematic mass killing known as the Holocaust[13] and the Porajmos. The atrocities committed in the name of Aryanist supremacist ideologies have led academics to generally avoid using 'Aryan' as a stand-alone ethnolinguistic term, which has been replaced in most cases by 'Indo-Iranian', although the Indic branch is still known as 'Indo-Aryan'.[16]
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was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Under the Nazi régime (1933–45) applied to the inhabitants of Germany of non-Jewish extraction. cf. 1933 tr. Hitler's Mein Kampf in Times 25 July 15/6: 'The exact opposite of the Aryan is the Jew.' 1933 Education 1 Sept. 170/2: 'The basic idea of the new law is that non-Aryans, that is to say mainly Jews...'
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