I'm not quite sure where to put this, so I decided here was probably best.
What do you understand by the term 'aryan'?

I'm trying to settle a debate. Someone I know is refusing to accept that people with blonde hair and blue eyes are referred to a aryan, and the original meaning referring to Indo-Europeans is dated and not in use anymore. In fact he's resorting to petty insults in order to silence people, in which case he'll claim he is correct and Hitler's version of an ideal Aryan race was Iranian.

There is a reason the social status system in India is called the Aryan Caste System---

anyway, the term aryan has much background for indo-european peoples...Aryan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan)

I think regardless of what it actually means...when people think "Aryan" they typically think blonde hair, blue eyed, white people. :)

Overdose,

It depends upon the context of the conversation in which the term is used. If I am speaking with WWII buffs, the term Aryan means blonde, blue eyed people. If I am speaking with historians, linguists, anthropologists, etc., the term means Indo-Europeans.

To me it means Blonde hair, blue eyes but I agree with Frogger that its context based.

Anyway i doubt your friend will be convinced by opinions of total strangers read on an internet forum.

Words are fun and in the end none of them will mean diddly squat

Yeah well the swastika used to be a Native American symbol for power too but has lost that context thanks to hitler.

Originally posted by Evakian
There is a reason the social status system in India is called the Aryan Caste System

this is my only understanding of the term aryan.

Originally posted by Frogger
Overdose,

It depends upon the context of the conversation in which the term is used. If I am speaking with WWII buffs, the term Aryan means blonde, blue eyed people. If I am speaking with historians, linguists, anthropologists, etc., the term means Indo-Europeans.
I said it is typically what most people think when they hear the word Aryan. No matter if it is or isn't the correct, or the true meaning, it is the main meaning in which most people think of when they hear that word. Of course it depends on the context, most things do depend on the context. However, if you are to look at this on a large scale, most consider Aryan something Hitler used to describe blonde haired, blue eyed, white, Germans.

Overdose,

No one is arguing about that. My post was in reference to this statement in the original post starting this thread.

the original meaning referring to Indo-Europeans is dated and not in use anymore.

Originally posted by Frogger
Overdose,

No one is arguing about that. My post was in reference to this statement in the original post starting this thread.

the original meaning referring to Indo-Europeans is dated and not in use anymore.
So why did you direct your post towards me if your post was in reference to the original post of this thread? You quoted me and told me that it depended on the context, as if I don't already know this and or I said it didn't depend on the context. Of course it does...but I was talking about that most people in most contextes assume Hitler's view of Aryan.

You guys are all wrong.

This is an Aryan, manufactured in Iran by Peugeot.

http://www.iran-daily.com/1384/2365/html/031146.jpg

looks like a 206 with boot space

Aren't the 206's hatchbacks?

Yes, and boot spaces are trunks, so he was saying it looks like a 206 with a trunk. :)

Oh, ok. I'm not too down with british car lingo.

Well, he was speaking English English, which is almost incomprehensible. :)