The meaning and etymology of ārya Giacomo Benedetti Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy. Abstract: The present paper considers the issue of the Sanskrit term ārya, starting from the use of ārya and arya as ‘freeman’ and ‘owner’ in opposition to dāsa 'servant' (or śūdra), from the Vedas to the Arthaśāstra and Pāli texts (in the form ayya). The original meaning is here interpreted as based on social classes rather than ethnic differences, although foreign populations could be considered as belonging to the dāsa or śūdra class. This social meaning can be found also in the Irish cognate aire ‘freeman, noble’, and in Iranic cognates like Middle Persian ērīh ‘nobility’. Derived terms from arya/ārya often have a honorific use, and from the social meaning, also a moral and spiritual meaning could be developed, which is more easily explained from the concept of ‘noble’ and ‘freeman’ than from that of an ethnic identity or kinship. If the original meaning of Indo-European *aryos was ‘freeman, noble’, it can be compared with the Afro-Asiatic root *ħar- ‘(vb.) to be superior, to be higher in status or rank, to be above or over; (n.) nobleman, master, chief, superior; (adj.) free-born, noble’. We can have thus to do with concepts of nobility and freedom developed in the common cultural frame of a society where slavery and social stratification were evolving. Keywords: Sanskrit lexicology; Vedas; Buddhist studies; Jainism; Indo-European historical linguistics; Afro-Asiatic linguistics. Section of Linguistics The Sanskrit term ārya is one of the most important in the history of Indo-European studies. Anquetil-Duperron in 1771 published a translation of the Avesta and used the term arien for the Avestan ethnic name airya. The same term and the Sanskrit ārya were then rendered in German with Arier, that Friedrich Schlegel in 1819 applied to define the original people from where not only Indians and Iranians, but also Germans descended, as he allegedly proved by the German