In the 2nd millennium BCE, the speakers of Aryan (āryāvāc, Vedic Sanskrit), for whom the Vedas were the most important source of religious authority, called themselves ārya; antonyms were anārya and dāsa (“demon, barbarian, slave”). In the Late Vedic period (ca. 500 BCE), ārya meant “noble,” a meaning that survived in Buddhist usage. In Hindu literature, from this time on the three varnas of the ārya or dviya (“twice born”) were contrasted to a fourth, inferior varna, the śūdra (Hinduism).
The term Aryan was introduced into the European languages as a loanword by A. H. Anque…