Names of Moldavia and Moldova
The names of Moldavia and Moldova originate from the historical state of Moldavia, which at its greatest extent included eastern Romania (Western Moldavia), Moldova, and parts of south-western and western Ukraine.
Etymology
One of the existing theories is that Moldavia/Moldova was named after the
Moldova River, which is a Slavic name,[1] derived from Slavic mold-, "spruce, fir".[2][3] A. I. Sobolevskij derived it from *moldu, "tender, soft, young".[4] The ending -ov(a)/-av(a) is a common Slavic suffix used in appelatives and proper names.[5] -ova denotes ownership, chiefly of feminine nouns. There is significant Slavic influence on Romanian
.
The myth, included in works of
Maramureș
(the founder of Moldova) One myth, given different levels of credence by Ureche, Miron Costin, and Cantemir, was about a place-name: Moldova.
Other theories is that it is derived from old mould), referring to the river.[citation needed
]
The short-lived capital of Moldova, Baia in the Suceava County, was called Stadt Molde in a 1421 German document.
Bogdania
The original and short-lived reference to the region was Bogdania, after
Bogdan III, who reigned in the years 1504–1517,"[7] and notes that "this was [later used] to explain the Turkish name of Moldavia — Bogdania. In fact, this name is of Tatar origin and was used long before Bogdan III was born. It is undoubtedly associated with Bogdan I," the first voivode of Moldavia in the 1360s.[8] It is this name that voyager Richard Hakluyt used for Moldavia in his writings in the late 16th century.[9]
Black or Bogdan's Wallachia
The term "Black Wallachia" (
Bogdan I of Moldavia; in Ottoman Turkish usage his state was known as Kara-Bogdan (Romanian: Cara-bogdan)[11]
and Bogdan-Eflak, "Bogdan's Wallachia".
Bessarabia, Moldavia and Moldova
Before 1812 the territory of the modern
Moldavian SSR
in the 1940s the new republic started to be unofficially called Moldavia. In 1991 that name was adopted as official name, with Romanian-language variant Moldova quickly become the preferred spelling.
Notes
References
- ^ Boia (2001), p. 55.
- ^ Du Nay (1996).
- ^ Illyés (1988), p. 173.
- ^ Nandriș (1968), p. 121.
- ^ Nandriș (1968), p. 122.
- ^ A. F. Büsching. A New System of Geography: In which is Given, a General Account of... &c., Volume 2. London: A. Millar, 1762. p. 165.
- ISBN 9781108071338
- ^ Filstich (1979), p. 39.
- ^ Rădvan (2010), p. 322.
- ISBN 0-8179-9791-1
Sources
- ISBN 1-86189-103-2.
- Du Nay, André (1996). The Origins of the Rumanians: The Early History of the Rumanian Language. Toronto: Matthias Corvinus Publishing. ISBN 1-882785-08-8– via Archive.org.
- Filstich, Johann (1979). Armbruster, Adolf (ed.). Tentamen historiae Vallachicae (in Romanian). Bucureşti: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică.
- Illyés, Elemér (1988). Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs. ISBN 0-88033-146-1.
- Kellogg, Frederick (1990). A History of Romanian Historical Writing. Bakersfield, California: C. Schlacks. ISBN 9781884445170.
- ISBN 9780814702819.
- Rădvan, Laurențiu (2010). At Europe's Borders: Medieval Towns in the Romanian Principalities. Translated by Cîrdei, Valentin. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-18010-9.
Further reading
- Brezianu, Andrei; Spânu, Vlad (2007). The A to Z of Moldova. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-8108-7211-0.
- Mănăilă Maximean, Doina (2014). "A New Theory on the Etymology of the Name of "Moldova"" (PDF). Annals of the Academy of Romanian Scientists: Series on History and Archaeology. 6 (2): 131–139.
- Everett-Heath, John (2018). "Moldavia (Moldova)". The Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1162. ISBN 978-0-19-256243-2.