What does the suffix -stan mean in words like "Afghanistan" and "Pakistan?"
-Stan is formed from the old Iranian root *sta- "to stand, stay," and means "place where one stays," i.e. homeland or country. Names such as Afghani-stan, Tajiki-stan, Hindu-stan are formed by adding this suffix to the usually pluralized names of the people living in that country, as the Afghani (one Afghan) live in Afghanistan. However, Pakistan was formed from the initial letters of "Punjab," "Afghanistan," and "Kashmir" and the questionably extended suffix -istan. So, now there is an extended suffix floating around that may be added to new countries, the name of whose people is not pluralized by the suffix -i.
By the way, Iranian is the mother language from which the modern Persian or Farsi, Pashto, Baluchi, etc. languages developed. The Germanic language family, of which English (German, Swedish, Dutch, etc.) is a member, developed from the same great-great-grandmother, Proto-Indo-European (PIE) some 7,000 years ago, so the same root also turns up in English "stand," "stay," "steady," and others.
Back to English Grammar & Style
- The 100 Funniest Words in English What are the words that always get a smile?
- The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English Words for those special moments, poems, letters, or any other writing where beauty counts.
- Rebel-Yankee Test If you liked the dictionary, you would probably enjoy taking Rebel-Yankee Test as much as the 5 million people who have already taken it.
- Glossary of Rhyming Compounds Some of the funniest words in English are rhyming couplets like sing-song, willy-nilly, and dilly-dally. Learn more about them here.
- Glossary of Eponyms Words that come from the names of people.
- Phobias, Philias, and Manias Here they all are. Of course, new ones are made up every day.
- Paraprosdokians Garden path sentences that lead us in the wrong direction.
- Parsiflage: When insults had class.
- Glossary of Folk Etymology Foreign words we change to sound more like English.