Dearbornistan
noun · first attested 2000s
The suffix does all the work: change the ending and a Detroit suburb is reclassified as foreign territory.
A hostile nickname for Dearborn, Michigan, applied to the city because of its large Arab American and Muslim population.
42.3113°N -83.2135°W · Q430464
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Usage
- Ethnic slurA slur against an ethnic or national group. Recorded here for its etymology; it is not neutral vocabulary.
- Attested
- 2000s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Dearborn
- In English
Dearbornistan
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.