Dearbornistannoun · 2000s
Well attestedThe suffix does all the work: change the ending and a Detroit suburb is reclassified as foreign territory.
The name grafts the -istan ending of Afghanistan and Pakistan onto Dearborn, the Detroit suburb with the largest Arab American community in the United States. It spread through online forums and talk radio after 2001; a dated example from August 2006 pairs it with a warning that sharia law is coming. Wiktionary labels it derogatory and an ethnic slur, and it is used almost entirely by outsiders arguing that the city's Muslim residents do not belong to the country around them.
Named from the placeRead →