Aryan vs. Ethnicity — What's the Difference?

Aryan or Arya (; 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). 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 ('abode of the Aryas'), where the Indo-Aryan culture emerged.

Ethnic character, background, or affiliation.

Indo-Iranian.

An ethnic group.

A member of the people who spoke the parent language of the Indo-European languages. No longer in technical use.

The common characteristics of a group of people, especially regarding ancestry, culture, language or national experiences.

A member of any people speaking an Indo-European language. No longer in technical use.

An ethnic group.

In Nazism and neo-Nazism, a non-Jewish Caucasian, especially one of Nordic type, supposed to be part of a master race.

Race; common ancestry.

One of a primitive people supposed to have lived in prehistoric times, in Central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea, and north of the Hindu Kush and Paropamisan Mountains, and to have been the stock from which sprang the Hindu, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other races; one of that ethnological division of mankind called also Indo-European or Indo-Germanic.

An ethnic quality or affiliation resulting from racial or cultural ties;

The language of the original Aryans.

A non-Jewish caucasian of Nordic stock; - a classification used by Nazis, having no anthropological basis.

Of or pertaining to the people called Aryans; Indo-European; Indo-Germanic; as, the Aryan stock, the Aryan languages.

(according to Nazi doctrine) a Caucasian person of Nordic descent (and not a Jew)

A member of the prehistoric people who spoke Proto-Indo European

Of or relating to the former Indo-European people;