vaivode Now Hist.
(ˈveɪvəʊd)
Forms: α. 6–7 vayuod(e, 7 vayvod, 7, 9 vayvode, 8 vaywode. β. 6 uai-, 7 vaiuoda; 7 vaiuod, 7–8 vaivod (7 vavoyd), 7–9 vaivode, 8 vaiwode.
[Ultimately ad. older Magyar vajvoda (now vajda), representing the common Slavonic voj(e)voda voivode. The immediate source is partly mod.L. vayvoda (cf. Sp., Pg., and It. vaivoda) or F. vayvode. See also waywode.]
A local ruler or official in various parts of south-eastern Europe (in older use esp. in Transylvania).
| α 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 71 He had an adversarye John Sepuse, the vayuode of transsylvania. 1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 44 b, In a great battaile fought betwixt him and that famous Vayuod Iuan Huniades Coruino. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Wars 579 The one [sister], marryed to the King of Poland; the other, to Sigismund Battor, Prince or Vayvod of Transilvania. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2070/2 The Vayvode Janco was drawing together a great Body of Morlacks with a design to attack some place in the Province of Bosnia. 1768 Ann. Reg. i. 19 Count Potocki, Vaywode of Kiow, had no less than ten towns, and one hundred and thirty villages, destroyed in his own territories. |
| fig. 1613 Dekker Diuels Last Will Wks. (Grosart) III. 351 Behemah Dornschweyn,..chiefe Vayuode of Vsury, Symony, Bribery, Periury,..etc. |
| β 1562 J. Shute tr. Cambini's Turk. Wars 7 John Uaiuoda soughte to haue al the glorie of the victorie to him selfe. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 51 The Vaiuods of Valachia, Moldauia and Transiluania hold their estates by vertue of this bribery. 1696 tr. Du Mont's Voy. Levant xix. 242 The Government of the Cities is manag'd by Five Kinds of Officers, the Bassa, Sub-Bassa, Vaivode, Cadi and Receiver of the Customs. 1771 W. Guthrie's Geogr. (ed. 3) 114 Their ancient nobility were divided into knezes, or knazeys, boyars, and vaivods. 1776 Ann. Reg. ii. 7 At Athens..his patrimony had suffered from the extortions of a tyrannical Vaiwode. 1833 Ellis Elgin Marbles I. 2 Lord Elgin then received very strongly expressed firmauns from the Porte, which were carried..to the Vaivode of Athens and the Disdar of the Acropolis. |
| transf. 1618 Bolton Florus ii. xiv. (1636) 132 Andriscus.., delivered up into our hands by that Vaivod, or petty King, of Thrace to whom hee had fled for succour. |