English Explanatory Dictionary

Pakistan

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. A country in South Asia. Official name: Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Capital: Islamabad.

Pronunciation

/ˌpɑː.kɪˈstɑːn/ /ˌpæ.kɪˈstɑːn/ /ˌpɑ.kɪˈstɑn/ /ˈpæ.kɪˌstæn/ /ˌpæ.kɪˈstæn/ /ˈpæ.kəˌstɑn/ /ˈpæ.kəˌstæn/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Soundguys-Pakistan.wav En-us-Pakistan-2.ogg En-us-Pakistan.ogg

Word forms

Pakistan

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pewH- Classical Persian پَاک (pāk)bor. Urdu پَاک (pāk) Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *os Proto-Indo-Iranian *stáHnam Middle Persian -stʾn' Classical Persian ـِسْتَان (-istān)bor. Urdu ـِسْتان (-istān) Urdu پاکستان (pākistān)bor. 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 sometimes erroneously said to stand for the Indus, but it is in fact epenthetic.

Related words

Pakistani

Derived words

East Pakistan Hazara Pakistan Pakistanphobia West Pakistan
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