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 Grigore Ureche (1590–1647), Miron Costin (1633–1691) and Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723), but given varying levels of credibility by these, was that the hunter Dragoș from Maramureș (the founder of Moldavia) in 1359 hunted for wild oxen, accompanied by female dog Molda who chased an ox into the river where the animal was killed and the dog itself drowned in the water; the river and region was named after the dog.[6]
Other theories is that it is derived from old German Molde, meaning "open-pit mine", or the Gothic Mulda meaning "dust", "dirt" (cognate with the English mould), referring to the river.
The short-lived capital of Moldavia, 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 I, the founding figure of the principality.
Wallachia
The term "Black Wallachia" (Romanian: Valahia Neagră), in Turkish Kara-Eflak, was another name found used for Moldova in the Ottoman period.[7] It derived from Bogdan I of Moldavia; in Ottoman Turkish usage his state was known as Kara-Bogdan (Romanian: Cara-bogdan)[8] and Bogdan-Eflak, "Bogdan's Wallachia".
References
- Boia, Lucian (2001). Romania: Borderland of Europe. Translated by Brown, James Christian. London: Reaktion Books. p. 55. 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.
- Illyés, Elemér (1988). Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area. Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs. p. 173. ISBN 0-88033-146-1.
- Nandris (1968), p. 121
- Nandris (1968), p. 122
- Kellogg, Frederick (1990). A History of Romanian Historical Writing. Bakersfield, California: C. Schlacks. ISBN 9781884445170.
- Filstich, Johann (1979). Armbruster, Adolf (ed.). Tentamen historiae Vallachicae (in Romanian). Bucureşti: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică. p. 39.
- Rădvan, Laurențiu (2010). At Europe's Borders: Medieval Towns in the Romanian Principalities. Translated by Cîrdei, Valentin. Leiden: Brill. p. 322. ISBN 978-90-04-18010-9.
Sources
- Nandriș, Grigore (1968). "Moldova-The Name of the River and the Country". In Magidoff, Robert; Shevelov, George Y.; Simmons, J. S. G.; Taranovski, Kiril (eds.). Studies in Slavic Linguistics and Poetics in Honor of Boris O. Unbegaun. New York: New York University Press. pp. 119–128. ISBN 9780814702819.
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.