Re: <>-abad?

It's a Persian placename-forming element meaning "settlement", often
added to the founder's name, so <X-abad> may mean "(a town) founded
by X".

Piotr

--- In cybalist@..., petrich@... wrote:
> In an area from Afghanistan to India and some nearby Central
> Asian areas, I see a lot of town names of the form Askhabad,
> Faizabad, Azizabad, Jalalabad, Islamabad, Allahabad -- which
> have a common element that I interpret as "abad"
>
> Does it mean "city/town/village" in some language? Lots of city/
> town/village names mean something like "<something>-city/
> town/village", which is a very straightforward sort of name for
> such a place.
>
> Related to that subject, I'm sure that "Newton" is short for
> "Newtown"; it's an amusing curiosity that Naples (< Ital. Napoli)
> and Nablus (West Bank) have names that may derive from
> Greek Neapolis ("New Town"). Which is also the meaning of
> Russian "Novgorod" and Italian "Villanova", IIRC.