Brewer's: Japhetidie

The supposed posterity of Japheth, son of Noah. The Aryan family is said to belong to this race.

“The Indo-European family of languages as known by various designations. Some style it Japhetic, as if it appertained to the descendants of the patriarch Japheth; as the Semitic tongues [appertain] to the descendants of Shem.” —Whitney: Languages, etc., lecture v. p. 192.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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