Name
The term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān / AEran (ୠୠୠୠୠ)
and Parthian Aryān.[16] The Middle Iranian terms ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms
of gentilic ēr- (in Middle Persian) and ary- (in Parthian), both deriving from Old
Persian ariya- ( ), Avestan airiia- (ୠୠୠୠୠୠ) and Proto-Iranian *arya-.[16][17]
There have been many attempts to qualify the verbal root of ar- in Old Iranian arya-.
The following are according to 1957 and later linguists:
Emmanuel Laroche (1957): ar a - "to fit" ("fitting", "proper").
Old Iranian arya- being descended from Proto-Indo-European ar-yo-, meaning
"(skillfully) assembler".[18]
Georges Dumézil (1958): ar- "to share" (as a union).
Harold Walter Bailey (1959): ar- "to beget" ("born", "nurturing").
Émil Benveniste (1969): ar- "to fit" ("companionable").Unlike the Sanskrit ārya- (Aryan), the Old Iranian term has solely an ethnic
meaning.[19][20] Today, the Old Iranian arya- remains in ethno-linguistic names such
as Iran, Alan, Ir, and Iron.[21][16][22][23]
The Bistun Inscription of Darius the Great describes itself
to have been composed in Arya [language or script].
In the Iranian languages, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier included in ancient
inscriptions and the literature of Avesta.[24][a] The earliest epigraphically attested
reference to the word arya- occurs in the Bistun Inscription of the 6th century BC. The
inscription of Bistun (or Behistun; Old Persian: Bagastana) describes itself to have been