-stan, suffix

/stɑːn//stæn/
Origin:
Hindi, South African EnglishShow more Suffix found in Hindi (in the form -sthān) and other Indo-Aryan languages, meaning ‘place’, ‘country’, and added to the name of a people to form the name of a state (e.g. Pakistan); in South African English first used in bantustan, probably modelled on Hindustan; later South African uses were in turn modelled on bantustan.
Note:
Especially during the apartheid era, used usually to deride the homeland policy of the National Party government, or to satirize the tendency towards separation in South African society. Added (frequently nonce) to the name of a people or group to create the name of their putative or proposed national state; added satirically to any word to illustrate the (effects of the) policies of apartheid, or to expose the ideas of conservative (White) people:
bantustan, see as a main entry;
Blackstan [coined by Stan Motjuwadi of Drum magazine], also attributive, or bundustan [see bundu; a reference to the remote locality of many of the ‘homelands’], a satirical name for a homeland (sense 1);
casinostan [a reference to the fact that casinos were allowed in the ‘homelands’, but not in South Africa];
Catholicstan;
Colouredstan [see coloured];
Griquastan [see Griqua];
homostan [formed on homosexual];
Kalaharistan [named for the Kalahari desert];
Mlungustan [coined by Drum magazine; see mlungu], a satirical name for ‘White’ South Africa;
multistan, see quotation 1974;
pluralstan [coined by Stan Motjuwadi of Drum magazine; see plural], see Blackstan;
Tsongastan [see Tsonga];
Tswanastan [see Tswana sense 2];
Vendastan [see Venda sense 1 a];
Verkramptstan [see verkramp] or Voortrekkerstan [see Voortrekker], a jocular name for a ‘homeland’ for conservative Afrikaners;
Whitestan, see Mlungustan;
Xhosastan [see Xhosa];
Zulustan [see Zulu].
1975 Drum 8 Nov. 2The Blackstan bookies are already making brisk business taking bets as just to who of the Blackstan leaders is going to accept an invite for the occasion.
1982 Voice 24 Jan. 4The whole sham of bundustans.
1987 C. Hope Hottentot Room 96It had become clear..that their country was violently torn, increasingly Balkanised into pseudo-states, principalities, Bantustans, casinostans, reserves.
c1970 C. Desmond Discarded People 31The people from Alva and Amakhasi Roman Catholic Missions were put into the promised ‘Catholicstan’ at Uitval.
1971 Sunday Times 28 Mar. 5The long-simmering row..over Coloured policy — whether the two-million Coloureds should be treated as ‘partners’ of the Whites, or herded into a Colouredstan — has flared up finally with..a Coloured leader’s plan for a fully-fledged Coloured Republic in South Africa.
1974 E. Prov. Herald 9 Aug. 6Descendants of the Griqualand leader Adam Kok are demanding 1000 square miles of fertile farmland near Kokstad to form the nucleus of the country’s first Colouredstan...White farmers in the district are up in arms over the proposed ‘Griquastan’.
1970 Post 6 Dec. 20They want their own Homostan where they can do what they like.
1989 K. Owen E. Prov. Herald 13 Mar. 6The rightwingers like Carel Boshoff, trying desperately to establish a utopion Kalaharistan for an endangered Afrikaner species.
1985 Drum July 24Mlungustan is Mlungustan. Pluralstan is Pluralstan..and never the twain shall meet.
1974 Evening Post 20 Aug. 6Multistan..means setting aside a portion of the country in which racial laws are repealed thus giving South Africa a region within its own borders which resembles other multi-racial societies.
1985 Drum June 31I made a beeline to the hut of the Oracle of Pluralstan, Old Dabula.
c1970 C. Desmond Discarded People 144The Tswanastan belies the idea of a nation-state...But the Vendastan and Tsongastan make the idea of creating a viable nation-state even less plausible.
1985 Platzky & Walker Surplus People 127At that stage there was no thought of a separate ‘Tsongastan’.
1972 Sunday Times 5 Nov. (Mag. Sect.) 2Verkramptstan...I suggest that a small corner of the Free State be set aside for those countrymen who cannot stomach it (sc. mixed sport).
1977 Financial Mail Vol.65 No.8, 669Voortrekkerstan, and all that. There is growing talk of partition.
1960 E.G. Malherbe in H. Spottiswoode S. Afr.: Rd Ahead 145However much we may cut it up into ‘Bantustans’ and ‘Whitestans’, South Africa will have to remain an interlinked economic and political unity.
1972 Sunday Times 2 Sept. (Mag. Sect.) 4Among the Blacks the Government have created two Xhosastans, a Zulustan, Vendastan, etc...Why do the Government not have an Afrikanerstan, and an Englishstan, a Frenchstan, Jewishstan, Germanstan, etc?
1970 Daily News 26 MayNo mention is made in the regulations of the position of urban Zulus and whether or not they would have a stake in the Zulustan.
Derivatives:
Hence stan  noun  rare, homeland sense 1; also attributive; -stania  [+ English noun-forming suffix -ia], suffix added to a noun to form a place name, as Bantustania (see bantustan); so -stanian  [+ English noun- and adjective-forming suffix -ian], suffix used to form nouns and adjectives, as Bantustanian (see bantustan), Blackstanian, mlungustanian, pluralstanian, etc.
1970 A.G. Ebrahim in 10th Anniversary of Sharpeville (P.A.C.) 9The fascist authorities in South Africa have systematically herded the vast majority of the people into so-called ‘stans’ which are made up of the 13% arid and semi-arid areas of South Africa.
1972 Daily Dispatch 26 July 14The ‘go-it-alone attitude’ of which the stan system is a typical example was introduced by whites.
1973 Drum 22 May 60Like I said mlungustanians do not believe in doing things that way.
1974 Drum 22 Sept. 2The mlungus were at it again discussing in Parliament us Blackstanians.
1977 ‘Black Stan’ in Drum July 2We Blackstanians have a long history of being taken for a ride right down the years we have been burdened with dummy bodies, supposedly to represent us.
1978 S. Motjuwadi in Drum Aug. 2Two Pluralstanians of very high standing are invited to a conference in West Germany. They would like to attend because this conference is vital to us Pluralstanians and Singularstanians here.
1981 Drum 120Why should Pluralstanians be required to sing Die Stem when they are not regarded as South African citizens?
1983 Drum Jan. 40Never trust a mlungu. Bedevilling for a young pluralstanian mind.
1986 Drum Dec. 14Mlungu and pluralstanian can pray together in a church.
1987 Drum Oct. 92There is a faded photograph showing some unknown pluralstanian signing a document with some mlungus.
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