Are you curious about the -stan that pops up in geographical place names ranging from Afghanistan to Waziristan? Your curiosity is easily satisfied: -stan simply means "land."

It's also easy to see how adding the name of the peoples—Kazakhs and Afghans, Uzbeks and Tajiks—to the word for "land" yields names for various countries and regions.

What isn't as obvious, particularly in the era of the global village and terrorist attacks, is the explanation behind the no-longer-current term Afghanistanism. Afghanistanism names "the practice, such as by a journalist, of concentrating on problems in distant parts of the world while ignoring controversial local issues." The term has its origin in the physical remoteness of Afghanistan from America, but ever since the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the term has fallen out of favor.

How about the term terrorism? Although the term terror dates back to the 14th century, the noun terrorism didn't turn up until the last decade of 18th-century France. Robespierre, a leader of La Terreur, justified the Reign of Terror with these words: "In times of peace, the springs of popular government are in virtue, but in times of revolution, they are both in virtue and terror."