English

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Etymology

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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).[1] 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.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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voivodeship (countable and uncountable, plural voivodeships)

  1. (countable, uncountable) The office, position, rank, or title of a voivode (a local ruler or official in various parts of central and eastern Europe; an administrative chief in modern Poland).
  2. (countable, uncountable) The jurisdiction of a voivode, comparable to a countship or a county.
    Synonym: voivodate
  3. (countable) The highest-level administrative subdivision of Poland, comparable to a province or state.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ voivodeship, n.”, in OED Online  , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; voivodeship, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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