-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
Indo-European s-mobile Indo-European s-mobile In Indo-European studies, the term s-"mobile" (; the word is a Latin neuter adjective) designates the phenomenon where a PIE root appears to begin with an "" which is sometimes but not always present. It is therefore represented in the reflex of the root in some attested derivatives but not others. This "movable" prefix "s-" appears at the beginning of some Indo-European roots, but is absent from other occurrences of the same root. For example, the stem "", perhaps 'bison', gives Latin "taurus" and Old English "steor" (Modern English "steer"), both meaning 'bull'. Both variants existed side by