Some 100 years ago, a person with a title of nobility belonged to the elite of society. However, today the possession of this special title is only a pleasant formality. It gives comparatively few privileges, unless there is a decent bank account, influential relatives, or one's own achievements in some socially significant area. What role did titles play in past centuries, and which of them remain relevant to this day? Does the word title have other meanings? Let's find out more about all this.
Origin of the term " title"
This noun was first recorded in Latin - titulus - and meant "inscription".
Practically unchanged, in later centuries this word was borrowed by other European languages. For comparison: in English the title is title, in French it is titre, in German it is titel.
Despite such an ancient history, the term “title” came to the Slavic languages much later. It happened inearly 17th century Judging by the spelling and sound, the term was borrowed through the mediation of English. Moreover, at first the word came to Polish (tytuł), and then it got into Belarusian (tytul), Ukrainian (title) and Russian.
Title - what is it? Who were given titles
This term denotes a special honorary title, which was awarded to individuals for outstanding services, most often military. Obtaining a title, as a rule, allowed a person to move into the category of a privileged estate, the elite of the state - the nobility. In addition to this, the titled person received material benefits like money, land, peasants, etc.
The holders of this special title had to be treated in a special way, for example: “highness”, “majesty”, “highness”, etc. In addition, almost every titled nobleman could transfer his privileges and title by inheritance to children or spouses. However, there were titles that could not be inherited, they were assigned to a special person only throughout her life.
Today, when the nobility has become a vestige, titles in most countries of the world do not give their holders a special status in the state. They remain just a beautiful tradition.
One of the few modern countries where the monarchy has been preserved is Great Britain. Its reigning queen, Elizabeth II, is still actively conferring titles of nobility to this day. Basically, they are received by artists, in rare cases - war heroes. At the same time, everyone who today takes the title from the hands of the British ruler,referred to as a noble with the appropriate title "sir" and the right to pass it on to his descendants.
Types of noble titles
As a rule, in most countries of the world, all noble ranks were divided into several general categories, depending on the ability to achieve power in the state.
- Just titles of nobility. Boyars, marquises, barons, counts, earls, chevaliers, kazoku, etc. belonged to this category. country.
- Titles of rulers. As the name implies, the possession of such a title gave the right to claim power. At the same time, depending on the country and its way of life, in some states there were inherited titles of rulers and elective ones. So, prince, king, emperor, king, khan, shah, king, etc. - these are titles that give a person the opportunity to rule the state simply because he was born in a family that has the appropriate title. As a rule, power was given to the eldest of the family and passed on to his children through the male line. Usually, potential heirs also had special titles: Dauphin, Tsarevich, Tsarevich, Crown Prince, Crown Prince, Shekhzade, etc. The elective titles included: Doge, Jarl, Caliph and King (among the Poles).
Special title "prince" among the Slavs
Unlike Europe and the East, Russia has developed its own system of government. The prince has always been at the head of the state. Before the appearance of the Rurik family, this was not an inherited title, but an elective one. But later everythingchanged.
As in most world succession systems, in the period of Kievan Rus, the eldest of the family became the ruler, according to the law of the ladder. He received the title of Grand Duke, and the rest of his relatives (brothers, uncles and nephews) became specific princes, each of which received power in the most important cities of the state. Such a system of government contributed to civil strife and became obsolete for several centuries.
After the collapse of Kievan Rus, the title "prince" gradually began to be replaced by others, such as "king", "king", "emperor".
Poles (król - king) and Russians (king) were among the first to change the name of the ruler. At the same time, the title "prince" itself was preserved, but it began to be assigned to the sons and other male relatives of the reigning emperor in the Russian Empire. With the advent of Soviet power, it was abolished, as was the very concept of the nobility.
The controversial title of "All Russia"
After the collapse of Kievan Rus, several separate principalities appeared on its ruins: Vladimir, Galicia, Chernigov, Ryazan, Smolensk and others. After several centuries of wars between themselves and with the Turks, the principality of Moscow became the strongest in this region.
In an effort to prove their right to rule over the lands of Kievan Rus, Moscow princes began to add to their name a kind of title - "All Russia". It is noteworthy that initially this title was used by the next prince only in order to elevate himself aboverulers of other principalities. For the same reason, the Polish and Lithuanian kings, as well as the rulers of the Galicia-Volyn principality, used a similar title in their names.
In the era of the Cossacks on the territory of Ukraine, individual hetmans in diplomatic correspondence also appropriated the title “Hetman of the Zaporizhzhya and All Russia Hosts.”
In addition to secular rulers, this title was also actively used among the clergy. So, with the advent of Christianity in Russia, all the metropolitans began to use the prefix "all Russia" to their names and titles. This tradition has been preserved by the Orthodox clergy of Russia today. But the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate has a slightly different title - "All Ukraine-Rus".
Sports titles
Despite the fact that belonging to the nobility no longer plays such an important role as in the old days, today the tradition of assigning sports titles is especially popular. By the way, they should not be confused with sports titles (“master of sports”, “honored coach”), which are awarded for personal achievements in official competitions and are assigned to their owner for life.
A sports title is something else. It is assigned to an athlete for a victory, but at the same time he is assigned to him only until he loses in the next tournament. It is for this reason that it is always specified in which year or years the person was the winner in the competition.
The most famous title of its kind in the worldsport - the title of world champion. It is awarded in football, chess, gymnastics, boxing and many other disciplines.
Titles are also awarded for victories in non-sporting competitions such as world championships in computer games or beauty contests.
Titles in PW - what is it
In addition to all of the above, titles are also awarded to regular players of the Chinese multiplayer online game Perfect World.
By completing individual tasks, its participant can earn a certain title, depending on the area of achievement, for example, "Ghostbuster", "Warrior of the Sun", "Stargazer" and others. Their possession provides opportunities to improve the abilities of your character, and also gives access to various game attributes.
"Bookish" meaning of the word " title"
Having de alt with the main meaning of the noun in question, in conclusion, it is worth studying its other meanings.
Everyone who can read is familiar with the phrase "book title" or " title page". This is the name of the page following after the flyleaf and avantula. It, as a rule, indicates the title of the work, the author, place and year of publication, in some cases - the publisher.
Title is also the name of the title of an article or other work.
Among other things, this term is used in jurisprudence to refer to a specific section in a piece of legislation.
