''Batoni'' ( ka, ბატონი) is a

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

word for "

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

", or "

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

". It is derived from ''patroni'' (პატრონი), the earlier term of similar meaning, and appears in common usage in the 15th century. *In Georgian feudal hierarchy, "batoni" may denote the supreme

suzerain Suzerainty () is the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity who controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is calle ...

(i.e.,

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

seigneur ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

, or any secular or clerical who owned ''qma'', i.e., "

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

" or " serf". The word sometimes appears as a part of the royal and nobiliary titulature. For example, the title of the Princes of

Mukhrani Mukhrani ( ka, მუხრანი, originally Mukhnari ��უხნარი i.e., " oak-grove") is a historical lowland district in eastern Georgia, currently within the borders of Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, north of the town of Mtskheta. It l ...

was batoni ( Mukhran-batoni), and the early kings of

Kakheti Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

were likewise referred to by that title in some Georgian sources.

Suny, Ronald Grigor Ronald Grigor Suny (born September 25, 1940) is an American historian and political scientist. Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan and served as director of the Eisenberg In ...

(1994), ''The Making of the Georgian Nation'', pp. 42-3.

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, *In modern usage, ''batoni'' is an

honorific An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...

used for a

man A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...

, an equivalent of both Mr. and

sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

. The equivalent

female Female (Venus symbol, symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ovum, ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the Sperm, male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gamet ...

title is ''k'albatoni'' (ქალბატონი). It can be used with the full name as well as either the last or first name. When addressing someone directly, the word is used in a

vocative case In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and num ...

''(k'al)batono'' ( ��ალ��ატონო), and precedes either the first name (more commonly) or the last name, but it can also be used by itself in direct address.Braun, Friederike (1998), ''Terms of address: problems of patterns and usage in various languages and cultures'', pp. 106-113. Walter de Gruyter,

References

Honorifics Noble titles of Georgia (country) Georgian words and phrases {{sociolinguistics-stub

See also

References