voivodeship

The story

1. Polish · semantic loan fromwojewództwo
2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*wedʰ-“to lead”
3. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*weyh₁-“to chase, pursue; to persecute; to suppress”
4. Proto-Slavic · derived from*vojevoda“army leader; duke; warlord”
5. Serbo-Croatian · derived fromvojvoda
6. Russian · derived fromвоево́да
7. Polish · derived fromwojewoda
8. Czech · derived fromvojevoda
9. Bulgarian · derived fromвойвода
10. English todayvoivodeship

From voivode (“local ruler or official in parts of central and eastern Europe; administrative chief in Poland”) + -ship (suffix forming nouns indicating properties or states of being). Voivode is variously derived from a number of Slavic languages including Bulgarian войвода (vojvoda), Czech vojevoda, Polish wojewoda, Russian воево́да (vojevóda), and Serbo-Croatian vojvoda, војвода, all from Proto-Slavic *vojevoda (“army leader; duke; warlord”), from *voji (“army”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- (“to chase, pursue; to persecute; to suppress”)) + *-e- + *vodìti (“to conduct; to lead”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to lead”)). Sense 3 is a semantic loan from Polish województwo.

Words from the same roots