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Aryan or Arya (/ˈɛəriən/;[1] Proto-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 Aryavarta (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, Airyanem Vaejah (Airyanəm Vaēǰah; '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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