English

Proper noun

Stan

1. A diminutive of the male given name Stanley.
   • 2010, Kate Atkinson, Case Histories: (Jackson Brodie), Random House (ISBN 9781409094524), page 307

     Stan Jessop taught at a different school now but lived in the same small 1930s semi-detached as he had done ten years ago. Stan made him sound like an old allotment guy but he was only thirty-six.

2. A diminutive of the male given name Stanislav.

Anagrams

• ants
• tans, Tans

English

Noun

stan ‎(plural stans)

1. (slang, sometimes pejorative) An extremely loyal and obsessed fan, particularly one whose fixation with a celebrity is unhealthy or intrusive.
   • 2011, Vanessa Spates, "Whether in Britney's Army or Rihanna's Navy, stans need to surrender to sanity", The Lantern (Ohio State University), Volume 132, Number 16, 11 October 2011, page 9A:

     I know the in-depth detailed life of a stan because I am one. I'm one of those Lady Gaga fans, […]

   • 2013, "Selena Gomez: She Is My Queen", Sunday Tribune (South Africa), 17 March 2013:

     I am the biggest stan for Selena because she is my queen. She made Disney interesting and I have always watched her.

   • 2013, Jake Folsom, "Stans take dedication to extreme heights online, in real life", Washington Square News, Volume 41, Number 104, 5 December 2013, page 11:

     Incidents have occurred with stans showing up to pop stars' residences, as has happened with Madonna, Taylor Swift and others.

Hypernyms

• megafan, superfan, trufan, uberfan

Etymology 2

• Back formation from names of countries that end with -stan.

Noun

stan ‎(plural stans)

1. Singular form of the generic term stans meaning some ex-Soviet countries and their neighbours whose name ends with "-stan" such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kasakhstan.
   • 2015 July 30, Jules Boykoff, “Beijing and Almaty contest Winter Olympics in human rights nightmare”, in The Guardian^[]:
   • This is a stan with a plan. Unlike Uzbekistan.

Albanian

Etymology

Borrowed from South Proto-Slavic *stanъ ‎(“lodging”) (compare Bulgarian стан ‎(stan) ‘camp’, Serbo-Croatian ста̑н ‎(stȃn) ‘apartment’); Romanian stână and Greek στάνη ‎(stáni) also from Slavic.

Noun

stan m

1. shepherd's hut
2. pen (for sheep)

Czech

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *stanъ.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -an

Noun

stan m

1. tent

Declension

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stāną.

Verb

stān

1. to stand

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: staen
  • Dutch: staan

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stainaz, from Proto-Indo-European *stāino-, *stī-no- (a suffixed form of *stāi- ‎(“to be solid, to crowd together”)); cognate with Old Frisian stēn, Old Saxon stēn, Old Dutch stein (Dutch steen), Old High German stein (German Stein), Old Norse steinn (Danish and Swedish sten), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 ‎(stains). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek στῖον ‎(stîon, “pebble”), Slavic *stēnā- (Bulgarian and Russian стена ‎(stena), Czech stěna ‎(“wall”)).

Pronunciation

Noun

stān m

1. stone

Declension

Derived terms

• stānfāh

Descendants

• Middle English: stan, ston
  • English: stone
• Scots: stan

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• standan

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *stāną.

Verb

stān

1. to stand

Conjugation

Polish

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *stanъ.

Pronunciation

Noun

stan m inan

1. state (of affairs), condition
2. state (political division of the United States)
3. (rare) state (sovereign polity)

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *stanъ, from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- ‎(“to stand, stay”), whence also stȁti ‎(“to stand”), stȁviti ‎(“to set, place”), stȁdo ‎(“herd”) and stȏl ‎(“table”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stâːn/
• Rhymes: -âːn

Noun

stȃn m ‎(Cyrillic spelling ста̑н)

1. flat, apartment
2. loom (tkàlačkī stȃn)

Declension

Derived terms

• stàmbenī
• stànār
  • sȕstanār
    • sȕstanārka

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:stan.

References

• “stan” in Hrvatski jezični portal

Slovak

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *stanъ, from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- ‎(“to stand, stay”), whence also stáť ‎(“to stand”), staviť ‎(“to set, place”), stádo ‎(“herd”) and stôl ‎(“table”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -an

Noun

stan m ‎(genitive singular stanu, nominative plural stany, declension pattern of dub)

1. tent
2. (slang) erection, hard-on

Declension

Swedish

Alternative forms

• sta'n

Etymology

Contraction of staden, definite singular of stad.

Noun

stan

1. (colloquial) the town, the city

   på stan

   downtown

Usage notes

• Stockholmers insist that stan always refers to Stockholm and no other cities. The phrase inte i stan ‎(“not in the town”) to them means outside of Stockholm, but to other Swedes it means outside of any town, i.e. in the countryside.