17 August 2021
Detail of an 1835 map of the Persian Gulf region with labels for Afghanistan, Hindostan, and Beloochtstan.
(This entry is for toponymic suffix -stan. If you want the slang word stan, meaning a fan of something, see the entry for stan.)
The suffixes -stan / -istan come into English from the Persian ستان (stân). The meaning in Persian is land or place of. In English, the suffix is primarily used for proper names, but in Persian it can also be used generally, for instance ریگستان (rigestân) is a desert, a “place of sand.” In English, -stan is used following a vowel or aspirated consonant (e.g., Kazakhstan or the archaic Hindustan), while -istan is used following a consonant (e.g., Afghanistan, Pakistan).
The word first appears in English in the form Indostan in the late sixteenth century, reflecting the beginning the European colonial exploitation of the region. From Thomas Blundeville’s 1594 description of India:
India tooke his name from the Flood Indus, which bordereth towards the East vpon the Realme of China, and towards the South vpon the great Ocean of India, and towardes the West vpon the sea of Arabia, and also vpon the Flood Indus, and towards the North vpon the sea Mare Euxinum, or Mar maior, and vpon Bramas.
This countrey is iudged at this day, as it hath bene long since to be the noblest and richest countrey in all the whole world, and it is diuided by the Flood Ganges into 2 . partes, whereof the West part is called Indostan, or India intra Gangem, and the East part is called India extra Gangem, and it containeth many prouinces and Realms, as Cambaiar, Delli, Decan, Bisnagar, Malabar, Narsingar, Orixa, Bengala, Sanga, Mogores, Tipura, Gouros, Aua, Pegua, Aurea, Chersonesus, Sina, Camboia, and Campaa.
We see the form Hindoostan in the next century. From a letter written 19 October 1677 by Matthew Vincent and Edward Reade, presumably employees of the British East India Company:
Shausteh Caun is called away to come up to Hindoostand by the King, which though we think by meanes of his money he will never doe, yett at present it startles him. and unfitts him and his Duan who are taken off with matters of this great moment to attend to any proposition we can make to him, soe that we feare it would be but labour lost to apply ourselves at present to him in this matter, nor are we unapprehensive that we may so soone put him in mind of the favour he did us the last yeare in writing to the King in our behalfe, when our whole business was stopped, from which he hath only reprieved us till ye answer comes, and that he may, now he is called away, stop all our business againe out of a designe to gett what he can out of us though noe order should come from ye King, and it is very likely it may not be in these times of great trouble in Hindoostan.
Other names for countries in the region would follow, and from English the names spread to other European languages.
But in the twentieth century, -stan began to be used as a standalone noun and as a combining form to create new words in English. In the 1930s, Stan started to be used as a generic name for a central Asian country or republic of the Soviet Union. From the Times of London of 7 September 1932:
When all the land in the Stans is collectivized in cotton plantations, say the Soviet governors, then the wheat, meat and vegetables are to come over from the Ukraine, Siberia, and the Caucasus.
And in the 1960s -stan began to be used as combining form to create the names of proposed or fictional countries. For instance, there are these uses of Bantustan and Whitestan for apartheid South Africa from an essay by E.G. Malherbe in 1960:
This training in ethnic isolation is not only against all university traditions, but it will not work in a multi-racial and multi-lingual country like South Africa. However much we may cut it up into “Bantustans” and “Whitestans,” South Africa will still have to remain an interlinked economic and political unity which will survive only if there is continuous consultation and co-operation between the various sections—White and non-White.
Many of these uses are jocular or racist. For instance, there is the jocular use of -istan in a 24 January 1999 New York Times article about Irvine, California:
Irvine, on the other hand, is what you might call a nerdistan: a suburban enclave of subdivisions, shopping centers and business parks where scientists, engineers and technicians feel comfortable living and working.
And there is this racist use by Andrew Sullivan in an article speculating what the world might be like if 9/11 never happened that appeared in New York magazine on 21 August 2006:
In fact, some CIA sources just told Novak that the Osama trail is getting hotter. But alas, over the last five years, Al Qaeda has dispersed its leadership across the globe, from Indonesia to Londonistan. Getting Osama would be emotionally satisfying. I’m not sure it would be militarily significant.
Sources:
Blundeville, Thomas. M. Blundevile His Exercises, Containing Sixe Treaties. London: John Windet, 1594, 257r. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
Kotkin, Joel. “A Place to Please the Techies.” New York Times, 24 January 1999, BU4.
Malherbe, E.G. “Training for Leadership in Africa.” In Hildegarde Spottiswoode, ed. South Africa: The Road Ahead. London: Bailey Bros. and Swinfen, 1960, 145. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2020, modified December 2020, s.v. Hindustan, n. and adj.; September 2012, modified September 2019, s.v. Afghanistanism, n.; September 2007, modified March 2019, s.v. -stan, comb. form, -istan, comb. form; September 2004, modified December 2020, s.v. stan, n.1.
Saunders, S.E. “Marx in Asia.” Times (London), 7 September 1932, 13. Gale Primary Sources: The Times Digital Archive.
Sullivan, Andrew. “The Good News is 9/11 Never Happened.” New York (magazine), 21 August 2006, 32. OmniFile Full Text Mega.
Vincent, Matthew and Edward Reade. Letter, 19 October 1677. “Copy of Public Sundry Book, No. 1, 1677 to 1679, Relative to Affairs in the Bay.” Bengal and Madras Papers, vol. 1 of 3. Calcutta: 1928, 20. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Image credit: Thomas Gamaliel Bradford, 1835. Library of Congress. Public domain image.