Aryan

""Aryan"" (/ˈɛəriən, ˈɛərjən, ˈær-/) is a loanword derived from the Sanskrit ārya ('noble'). The term ārya was used as an ethnic self-designation by the Indo-Iranian speaking tribes in the ancient times. It was believed in the 19th century that it was also a self-designation used by all Proto-Indo-Europeans, a theory that has now been abandoned.In present-day academia, the term ""Aryan"" has been replaced in most cases by the terms ""Indo-Iranian"" and ""Indo-European"", and ""Aryan"" is now mostly limited to its appearance in the term of the ""Indo-Aryan languages"" in South Asia.