The title is ... Who has the title? The meanings of the word "title"

Still some 100 years ago, a man with a noble title, belonged to the elite of society. However, today the possession of this special title is only a pleasant formality. It gives relatively few privileges, if there is no decent bank account, influential relatives or own achievements in any socially significant sphere. What role did titles play in past centuries and which of them remain relevant to this day? Does the word 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 denoted "inscription".

Virtually unchanged, in later centuries this word was borrowed by other European languages. For comparison: in English title is title, in French - titre, in German - titel.

Despite such an ancient history, the term "title" came much later in the Slavonic languages. This happened in the beginning of the XVII century. Judging by the writing and sounding, the term was borrowed through the mediation of English. And first the word came to Polish (tytuł), and then got into Belarusian (tyutul), Ukrainian (title) and Russian.

Title - this is what? To whom titles were assigned

This term denotes a special honorary title, which was awarded to individuals for outstanding services, most often military. Receiving the title, as a rule, allowed a person to become a privileged class, elite of the state - the nobility. In addition to this, the titled person received material goods like money, land, peasants, etc.

The owners of this special title should be treated in a special way, for example: "highness", "majesty", "lordship", etc. In addition, virtually every titled nobleman could transfer his privileges and the title of inheritance to children or spouses. However, there were titles that could not be inherited, they were fixed for a special only during her life.

Today, when the nobility became a rudiment, titles in most countries of the world do not give their owners a special status in the state. They remain just a beautiful tradition.

One of the few modern countries where the monarchy has survived is the United Kingdom. Her ruling Queen Elizabeth II and to this day actively appropriates noble titles. In general, they are received by artists, in rare cases - heroes of wars. In this case, anyone who today will take the title from the hands of the British ruler, is called a nobleman with the appropriate treatment of "sir" and the right to transfer it to his descendants.

Types of noble titles

As a rule, in most countries all noble ranks were divided into several general categories, depending on the possibility of gaining power in the state.

• Just noble titles. This category included boyars, marquises, barons, earls, Earlie, chevalier, kadzoku, etc. Paradoxically, although the holders of these ranks could not gain power in the state, their daughters were able to rise to the rank and even become wives of the first persons in Country.
• Titles of rulers. As is clear from the title, the possession of such a title gave the right to claim power. At the same time, depending on the country and its way, in some states there were inherited titles of rulers and elective. Thus, the prince, the tsar, the emperor, the king, the khan, the shah, the king, etc. are titles that give the person the opportunity to rule the state simply because he was born in a family with a corresponding title. As a rule, power was given to the eldest of the clan and passed on to his children in the male line. Usually potential heirs also had special titles: the Dauphin, the Tsarevich, the Tsesarevich, the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince, Shehzade, etc. The elected titles included Doge, Jarl, Caliph and the King (among the Poles).

A special title of "prince" among the Slavs

Unlike Europe and the East, Russia has its own system of government. The head of state was always the prince. Before the appearance of the Rurikovich family, it was not an inherited title, but an elected one. But later everything changed.

As in most world systems of succession, in the period of Kievan Rus, the elder became the ruler, according to the law of lefthys. He received the title of Grand Duke, and his other relatives (brothers, uncles and nephews) became specific princes, each of whom received power in the most important cities of the state. Such a system of government contributed to civil strife and for several centuries became obsolete.

After the collapse of Kievan Rus, the title "prince" gradually began to be supplanted by others, such as "king", "tsar", "emperor".

One of the first changed the name of the ruler of the Poles (król - the king) and the Russians (the king). At the same time the title "prince" was preserved, but he was appropriated to his sons and other male relatives of the ruling emperor in the Russian Empire. With the advent of Soviet power, it was abolished, as the very concept of the nobility.

The controversial title of "All Russia"

After the collapse of Kievan Rus on its wreckage appeared several separate principalities: Vladimir, Galicia, Chernigov, Ryazan, Smolensk and others. After several centuries of wars between themselves and the Turks, the Moscow principality became the strongest in this region.

In an effort to prove his right to power over the lands of Kievan Rus, the Moscow princes began to add to their name an original title - "All Russia". It is noteworthy that initially this title was used by the next prince only in order to exalt himself above the rulers of other principalities. For the same reason, a similar title was used in its names by Polish and Lithuanian kings, as well as by the rulers of the Galicia-Volyn principality.

In the era of the Cossacks in the territory of Ukraine, individual hetmans in diplomatic correspondence also appropriated the title "Hetman troops of Zaporozhye and All Russia".

In addition to secular rulers, this title was actively used among the clergy. So, with the advent of Christianity in Russia, all 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 somewhat excellent title - "All Ukraine-Rus."

Sports titles

Despite the fact that belonging to the nobility does not play such an important role as in the olden days, today the tradition of appropriating sports titles is very popular. By the way, do not confuse them with sports ranks ("master of sports", "honored coach"), which are appropriated for personal achievements in official competitions and assigned to their owner for life.

A sports title is something different. He is assigned to an athlete for victory, but he is assigned to him only before losing 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 this kind in the world of sports is the title of world champion. He is appropriated in football, chess, gymnastics, boxing and many other disciplines.

Titles also receive titles for victories in unsportsmanlike competitions, such as world championships in computer games or beauty contests.

Titles in the PV - this is what

In addition to all of the above, titles are also assigned to regular players of the Chinese multiplayer online game Perfect World.

Performing separate tasks, its participant can earn a certain title, depending on the scope of achievements, for example, "Ghostbusters", "Warrior of the Sun", "Stargazer" and others. Their possession provides opportunities to improve the abilities of your character, and also gives you access to various game attributes.

"Book" meaning of the word "title"

Having dealt with the main meaning of the noun, in conclusion it is worthwhile to study its other meanings.

Everyone who knows how to read is familiar with the phrase "book title" or "title page". This is the name of the page that follows the flyleaf and the avantul. It, as a rule, indicates the name of the work, the author, the place and year of publication, in some cases - the publishing house.

Title - this is also the title of the title of the article or other work.

Among other things, this term is used in jurisprudence to designate a special section in a legislative act.