A
voi(e)vod(e) (literally, "leader of warriors" or "war leader", equivalent to the
Latin "
Dux Exercituum") was originally a military commander who stood, in a state's structure, next to the ruler. Later the word came to denote an administrative official. Words for "voivodeship" in various languages include the ; ; the ; the ; the
Bulgarian:
voivoda (войвода); the
Serbian:
vojvodina (војводина),
vojvodstvo (војводство) or
vojvodovina (војводовина); the ; the (
vajаvodstva); the . Some of these words, or variants of them, may also be used in English. The autonomous
Serbian province of
Vojvodina is named after the word "voivodeship". Though the word "voivodeship" (other spellings are "voievodship" and "voivodship") appears in English dictionaries such as the
OED and
Webster's, it is not in common general usage, and voivodeships in Poland and elsewhere are frequently referred to as "
provinces". Depending on context, historic voivodeships may also be referred to as "duchies", "palatinates" (the
Latin word "
palatinatus" was used for a voivodeship in Poland), "administrative districts" or "regions". ==Historical voivodeships==