-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
-stan -stan The suffix -"stan" () is Persian for "place of" or "country". It appears in the names of many regions in Iran, Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, but also in the Caucasus and Russia; areas where significant amounts of Persian culture were spread or adopted. The suffix "-stan" is analogous to the suffix "-land", present in many country and location names. The suffix is also used more generally, as in Persian (borrowed into Urdu) "rigestân" () "place of sand, desert", "golestân" () "place of flowers, garden", "Pakistân" "land of the pure", "Hindustân" "land of the Indus river", and in Bengali