-stan "koborsthan" ( "") "graveyard/cemetery", known as "Qabaristan" as (). Originally an independent noun, this morpheme evolved into a suffix by virtue of appearing frequently as the last part in nominal compounds. It is of Indo-Iranian and ultimately Indo-European origin: It is cognate with Sanskrit "" (Devanagari: ), meaning "the act of standing", from which many further meanings derive, including "place, location; abode, dwelling", and ultimately descends from Proto-Indo-Iranian . The Proto-Indo-European root from which this noun is derived is (older reconstruction ) "to stand" (or "to stand up, to step (somewhere), to position (oneself)"), which is also the source of
Proto-Indo-European nominals The cognates derived from these roots in different daughter languages often do not agree in formation, but show certain characteristic properties: The comparative form ("bigger, more beautiful") could be formed by replacing an adjective's suffix with ; the resulting word is amphikinetic: 'big' (Latin "magnus") → 'bigger' (Latin "maior, maius"), weak cases . A second suffix, , originally expressed contrast, as in Ancient Greek "pó-tero-s" 'which (of two)' or "dexi-teró-s" 'right (as opposed to left)'. It later attained comparative function. For example, the meaning of Ancient Greek "sophṓteros" 'wiser, the wiser one' developed from 'the wise one (of the two)'.