Indo-Aryan

American  

[in-doh-air-ee-uhn, -yuhn, -ar-, -ahr-yuhn] / ˈɪn doʊˈɛər i ən, -yən, -ˈær-, -ˈɑr yən /

noun

1. Indic.

2. a member of any of the peoples speaking an Indic language such as Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, or Urdu.

---

adjective

1. Indic.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of the Indo-Aryans or their languages.

Indo-Aryan British  

adjective

1. another word for Indic

---

noun

1. another name for Indic

2. a native speaker of an Indo-Aryan language

Etymology

Origin of Indo-Aryan

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Theories have linked it to early Brahmi scripts, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages, Sumerian, and even claimed it's just made up of political or religious symbols.

From BBC • Jan. 16, 2025

But some of the earliest Buddhist sutras were written around the 5th or 6th century A.D., in the Indo-Aryan language called Pali. which is far less specific than Sanskrit.

From Salon • May 21, 2023

The four Vedas were composed between 1500 and 900 BCE by the Indo-Aryan tribes that had settled in northern India.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

The Nepalese identity is an umbrella term for the various Mongoloid and Indo-Aryan groups and castes, like animists, Buddhists and Hindus, bound together by their linguistic identity tied to the Nepali language.

From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2013

The late Sir M. Monier Williams speaks of pantheism as a main root of the original Indo-Aryan creed, which has "branched out into an endless variety of polytheistic superstitions."

From New Ideas in India During the Nineteenth Century A Study of Social, Political, and Religious Developments by Morrison, John