English
Pakistan
Pakistan comes from Urdu پاکستان, from ـِسْتان ‘-istan, -stan’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pewH- ‘to be clean, pure’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pewH-‘to be clean, pure’root as named · steps between not traced
- Classical Persianc. 900–presentپَاکpāk
- Urdumodernsame formpāk‘clean, pure’
- Classical Persianc. 900–presentـِسْتَان-istān
- Urdumodernـِسْتان-istān‘-istan, -stan’
- Urdu, derivedmodernپاکستانpākistān
- Englishearliest quotation 2008Pakistan
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pewH-‘to be clean, pure’root as named · steps between not traced
- Classical Persianc. 900–presentپَاکpāk
- Urdumodernsame formpāk‘clean, pure’
- Classical Persianc. 900–presentـِسْتَان-istān
- Urdumodernـِسْتان-istān‘-istan, -stan’
- Urdu, derivedmodernپاکستانpākistān
- Englishearliest quotation 2008Pakistan
Earliest quotation: 2008, John F. Burns, Britain: Life Sentence in Beheading Plot: “Described by witnesses as a keen cricketer and pubgoer…”
The story
English Pakistan Borrowed from Urdu پاکستان (pākistān). Coined by Pakistani politician Chuhdary Rahmat Ali in 1933, who published it in the pamphlet Now or Never as an acronym of the names of the "Muslim homelands" of western India—Punjab, "Afghania", Kashmir, Sindh, and Balochistan. Absent from said acronym (which may possibly be a backronym) is the letter ⟨i⟩, which is epenthetic.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *pewH- ‘to be clean, pure’
pure, deputy, reputation, pour, pity, purity, pious, purification, piety, purify, putative, purée, puro, purist, expiation, 17 more
Today it means
name A country in South Asia. Official name: Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Capital: Islamabad.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pewH- / Pakistan