Just 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 personal 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 title have other meanings? Let's find out more about all this.
The origin of the term "title"
This noun was first recorded in Latin - titulus - and meant "inscription".
Virtually unchanged, in later centuries this word was borrowed from other European languages. For comparison: in English, the title is title, in French - titre, in German - titel.
Despite such an ancient history, the term “title” came to Slavic languages much later. This happened at the beginning of the XVII century. Judging by the spelling and sound, the term was borrowed through the mediation of English. Moreover, the word first came to Polish (tytuł), and then fell into Belarusian (tutul), Ukrainian (title) and Russian.
What is a title? Who was awarded the titles
This term denotes a special honorary title, which was awarded to individuals for outstanding services, most often the military. Obtaining a title, as a rule, allowed a person to move into the category of a privileged estate, the elite of the state - nobles. In addition to this, the titled person received material wealth like money, land, peasants, etc.
The owners of this special rank should be approached in a special way, for example: “Highness”, “Majesty”, “Excellency”, etc. In addition, almost every titled nobleman could pass on his privileges and title to the children or spouses. However, there were titles that could not be inherited, they were assigned to the special only throughout her life.
Today, when the nobility has become 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 been preserved is Great Britain. Her ruling Queen Elizabeth II and to this day is actively appropriating noble titles. Mostly they are received by artists, in rare cases - heroes of wars. At the same time, everyone who today takes the title from the hands of the British ruler is called a nobleman with the corresponding appeal "sir" and the right to transfer it 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 gain power in the state.
- Just noble titles. This category included the boyars, marquises, barons, counts, earls, Chevaliers, kazoku, etc. It is ironic that although the bearers of these ranks could not gain power in the state, their daughters were able to rise in rank and even become wives of the first persons in country.
- Titles of rulers. As the name implies, the possession of such a title gave the right to claim power. Moreover, depending on the country and its way of life, in some states there were inherited titles of rulers and elected ones. So, a prince, a king, an emperor, a king, a khan, a shah, a 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 clan and transferred to his children through the male line. Usually, potential heirs also had special ranks: Dauphin, Tsarevich, Tsesarevich, Crown Prince, Crown Prince, Shekhzade, etc. Elected 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 head of state was always the prince. Before the appearance of the Rurikovich clan, it was not an inherited title, but an elected one. But later everything changed.
As in most world succession systems, during the period of Kievan Rus, the eldest of the clan became ruler, according to ladder law. He received the title of Grand Duke, and the rest of his relatives (brothers, uncles and nephews) became princes, each of whom received power in the most important cities of the state. Such a system of government contributed to civil strife and over the centuries has outlived itself.
After the collapse of Kievan Rus, the title “prince” gradually began to be supplanted by others, such as “king”, “king”, “emperor”.
One of the first to change the name of the ruler was the Poles (król - king) and the Russians (king). At the same time, the title “prince” itself was preserved, however, it began to be assigned to the sons and other male relatives of the ruling emperor in the Russian Empire. With the advent of Soviet power, it was abolished, as was the very concept of nobility.
The controversial title of "All Russia"
After the collapse of Kievan Rus, several separate principalities appeared on its fragments: Vladimir, Galitsky, Chernihiv, Ryazan, Smolensk and others. After several centuries of wars between themselves and with the Turks, the Moscow principality became the most powerful in the region.
In an effort to prove their right to power over the lands of Kievan Rus, the Moscow princes began to add to their name a peculiar title - “All Russia”. It is noteworthy that initially this title was used by the next prince only to elevate himself above the rulers 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 Cossacks on the territory of Ukraine, individual hetmans in diplomatic correspondence also appropriated the title "Hetman of the troops of Zaporizhzhya 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 the metropolitans began to use the prefix "All Russia" to their name and titles. This tradition has been preserved among the Russian Orthodox clergy today. But the metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate has a slightly different title - "All Ukraine-Russia."
Sports titles
Despite the fact that belonging to the nobility does not play such an important role as in the old days, today the tradition of assigning sports titles is especially popular. By the way, do not confuse them with sports titles (“master of sports”, “honored coach”), which are assigned for personal achievements in official competitions and assigned to their holder for life.
A sports title is something else. He is assigned to an athlete for 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 a person was the winner in the competition.
The most famous title of this kind in the world of sports is the world title. He is appropriated in football, chess, gymnastics, boxing and many other disciplines.
They also receive titles for victories in unsportsmanlike competitions such as the world championships in computer games or beauty contests.
Titles in PV - what is it?
In addition to all of the above, titles are also assigned to regular players of the Chinese multiplayer online game Perfect World.
By completing individual tasks, her participant can earn a certain rank, depending on the scope of achievements, for example, “Ghostbuster”, “Sun Warrior”, “Stargazer” and others. Their possession provides opportunities to improve the ability of your character, and also gives access to various game attributes.
"Book" meaning of the word "title"
Having dealt with the main meaning of the considered noun, in conclusion it is worth studying its other meanings.
Anyone who can read is familiar with the phrase “title of a book” or “title page”. This is the name of the page following the flyleaf and avant-garde. It usually indicates the name of the work, the author, the place and year of publication, in some cases - the publisher.
A title is also the title of the title of an article or other work.
Among other things, this term is used in jurisprudence to mean a special section in a legislative act.