section_path: Etymology
section_name: Etymology
paragraph_text: Etymology
  
  The word land is derived from Old English, from the Proto-Germanic word * landą, "untilled land", and then the Proto-Indo-European * lendʰ-, especially in northern regions that were home to languages like Proto-Celtic and Proto-Slavic. Examples include Old Irish land, "land, plot, church building" and Old Irish ithlann, "threshing floor", and Old East Slavic ljadina "wasteland, weeds".
  
  A country or nation may be referred to as the motherland, fatherland, or homeland of its people. Many countries and other places have names incorporating the suffix -land (e.g. England, Greenland, and New Zealand). The equivalent suffix -stan from Indo-Iranian, ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-Iranian * sthāna-, is also present in many country and location names, such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and others throughout Central Asia. The suffix is also used more generally, as in Persian rigestân (ریگستان) "place of sand, desert", golestân (گلستان) "place of flowers, garden", gurestân (گورستان) "graveyard, cemetery", and Hindustân (هندوستان) "land of the Indo people".