Hospodar

The rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia (only occasionally joined) were styled ''hospodars'' in Slavic writings from the 15th Century to 1866 , alongside the title of '' Voivod ''. They were calling themselves ''Domn'' (from the Latin '' Dominus '') when writing in Romanian .

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 growth of the Danubian Principalities ' independence (formalized for a sovereign 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 (not including Transylvania until 1918 ).

ETYMOLOGY AND SLAVIC USAGE

It is a derivative of ''gospod'', lord, and is akin to ''gosudar'', which primarily means sovereign, and was also used in Russia as a polite Form Of Address , equivalent to '' Sir ''. 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''. (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.)

In Bulgarian , ''gospodar'' (господар) means a "master". Other derivatives of the Russian word ''gospod'' include the Polish ''gospód'' ("lord", "master"), the Czech ''hospod''. All forms stem from the Proto-Slavic word ''gospodü'' (господу).

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REFERENCE

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Hospodar