Explanation of "stan" in countries

[MarzipanQ]

What does the stan bit mean as in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tjurkistan etc please?

[Homer55]

its the equivelant of land i.e england scotland, ireland...etc

[MarzipanQ]

Aha - thank you:) Now I've gone off on the thought in another direction. England - land of the Angles, Scotland - land of the Scots but Ireland - land of the Ires? And why is it ok to call someone an Afghan but very impolite to call someone a ****? All very weird and part of the rich tapestry of our language I guess.

[Quizmonster]

'Stan' means 'land'. So, Afghanistan = Land of the Afghans, Baluchistan = Land of the Baluchis and so on. 'Pakistan' is an exception, though the 'stan' part still means 'land'. This name was created by Choudhary Rehmat Ali, a Muslim intellectual, as long ago as 1933. He used the initial letters of the regions that finally went to make up the country at its foundation in the late 1940s. It could, in theory, have been called 'Kapistan', 'Apkistan' etc. As luck would have it, however, Pakistan meant 'Land of the Pure', so that is the combination that he chose. It does not mean 'Land of the P-word'!

[Clanad]

Uncharacteristically, Q omitted the source of the letters used to make up the name Pakistan; from World Atlas and Maps is this expansion on Q's otherwise auriferous tome:

Pakistan was formed by combining the suffix "stan" from the existing territory of Baluchistan, with the first letters of Pashtun, Afghan, Kasmir and ,India, thus ****stan...

[Clanad]

So... P a k i is a 'bad' word?

[Quizmonster]

It is here, C...a bad word, that is! (I didn't really 'omit' the letters so much as think they weren't that important! But what the hey!)

[MarzipanQ]

Many thanks for the replies - one of those "I wonder whys" that wander into my brain put to rest:)

[jno]

Ireland is Eire (their own word) + land (the English/Germanic ending). Eire originally meant something like fertile soil.

[Fink-Knottle]

'Auriferous ?' Clanad !!

No need for showeyoffey words like that now is there?

[Fink-Knottle]

Clanad-are you of the trainspottin' genus?