Hospodar

Hospodar or gospodar is a term of Slavonic origin, meaning "lord" or "master".

The rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia (only occasionally joined) were styled "hospodars" in Slavic writings from the 15th century to 1866. "Hospodar" was used in addition to the title "voivod". When writing in Romanian, the term "Domn" (from the Latin "dominus") was used.

At the end of this period, as the title had been held by many vassals of the Ottoman Sultan, its retention was considered inconsistent with the independence of the Danubian Principalities' (formalized from Romania only in 1878 — replacing the tributary status). "Hospodar" was therefore discarded in favour of "domnitor" or, in short, "domn", which continued to be the official princely title up to the proclamation of a Kingdom of Romania in 1881 (which did not include Transylvania until 1918).

Etymology and Slavic usage

"Gospodar" ( _bg. "господар", _sr. "господар") is a derivativeFact|date=February 2007 of "gospod", lord, (spelled with capital G, "Gospod", it means Lord, God).

The pronunciation as "hospodar" of a word written "gospodar" in all but one of the Slavonic languages which retain the Cyrillic alphabet is not, as is sometimes alleged, due to the influence of Ukrainian, but to that of Church Slavonic — in both of these, "g" is frequently pronounced "h". Fact|date=February 2007

In Ukrainian, the title is especially applied to the master of a house or the head of a family. The word "gospodar" still covers the first of these two meanings in Romanian.Fact|date=February 2007

The title was used briefly towards the end of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In 1394-95, Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria referred to himself not as a Tsar (as traditionally), but as a "gospodin" of Tarnovo, and in foreign sources was styled herzog or merely called an "infidel bey". This was possibly to indicate vassalage to Bayezid I or the yielding of the imperial title to Ivan Sratsimir. [cite book |title=Цар Константин II Асен (1397-1422) - последният владетел на средновековна България |last=Павлов |first=Пламен |accessdate=2007-02-10 |url=http://liternet.bg/publish13/p_pavlov/konstantin_II_asen.htm |publisher=LiterNet |date=2006-07-18 |language=Bulgarian ]

In Serbian, Croatian and Bulgarian, "gospodar" (господар) means a "master", "lord", or "sovereign lord". Other derivatives of the word include the Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, and Croatian "gospodin" (господин, "Mister"), Russian "gospod`" (господь, "the Lord" [used only for God] ), the Polish "gospód" ("lord", "master"), the Czech "hospodar". All forms stem from the Proto-Slavic word "gospodü" (господъ). Russian word "gosudar", which means "sovereign"Fact|date=February 2007. Hungarian word "gazda" = "potentate", "rich landowner" is borrowed from the language of Southern Slavs who inhabited today's Hungary before the arrival of Hungarians, aka Magyars, to Europe.

ee also

*Voivod
*List of rulers of Moldavia
*List of rulers of Wallachia
*Phanariotes

References

*1911