Articles under the heading Arier were included in the big popular encyclopaedias of Brockhaus and Meyer from 1864 and 1867 respectively, and the Arier is defined from the start as Indo-Germanic. The 14th edition of Brockhaus states specifically that it is better to apply the term Arier only to "Asian Aryans" and to use the term Indo-Germanic or Indo-European to describe the "European Aryans".

If fortune has endowed any name with a more glorious history than that of Goth, it must surely be that of Frank. No German word has pushed out more roots into the soil of Europe, from the Franche- Comte to Franconia, from Frankfurt to Villefranche. The concepts of freedom, integrity and power are associated with it in all western languages.