The names of Moldavia and Moldova originate from the historical state of

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and for ...

, which at its greatest extent included eastern Romania (

Western Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova), also called Western Moldavia or Romanian Moldavia, is the historic and geographical part of the former Principality of Moldavia situated in eastern and north-eastern Romania. Until its union with Wallachia in 1859, the P ...

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistr ...

, and parts of south-western and western

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Etymology

In Lithuanian language Malduva or Maldava means the land of prayers and originated from Lithuanian word 'a prayer'. One of the existing theories is that Moldavia/Moldova was named after the

Moldova River The Moldova () is a river in Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia. It is a right tributary of the river Siret. The river rises from the Obcina Feredeu Mountains of Bukovina in Suceava County and joins the Siret in Cotu Vameș, east of ...

, which is a Slavic name, derived from Slavic ''mold-'', "spruce, fir". A. I. Sobolevskij derived it from ''*moldu'', "tender, soft, young". The ending ''-ov(a)/-av(a)'' is a common Slavic suffix used in appelatives and proper names.Nandris (1968), p. 122 ''-ova'' denotes ownership, chiefly of feminine nouns. There is significant

Slavic influence on Romanian The Slavic influence on Romanian language is noticeable on all linguistic levels: lexis, phonetics, morphology and syntax. The intercultural process also enriched the Slavic languages, which borrowed Vulgar Latin words and terms from Romanian, a R ...

. The myth, included in works of

Grigore Ureche Grigore Ureche (; 1590–1647) was a Moldavian chronicler who wrote on Moldavian history in his ''Letopisețul Țării Moldovei'' ('' Chronicles of the Land of Moldavia''), covering the period from 1359 to 1594. Biography Grigore Ureche was th ...

(1590–1647), Miron Costin (1633–1691) and

Dimitrie Cantemir Dimitrie or Demetrius Cantemir (, russian: Дмитрий Кантемир; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known by other spellings, was a Romanian prince, statesman, and man of letters, regarded as one of the most significant e ...

(1673–1723), but given varying levels of credibility by these, was that the hunter Dragoș from

Maramureș or Marmaroshchyna ( ro, Maramureș ; uk, Мармарощина, Marmaroshchyna; hu, Máramaros) is a geographical, historical and cultural region in northern Romania and western Ukraine. It is situated in the northeastern Carpathians, alon ...

(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. Other theories is that it is derived from old

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

''Molde'', meaning "

open-pit mine Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a Borrow pit, b ...

", or the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

''Mulda'' meaning "dust", "dirt" (cognate with the English '' mould''), referring to the river. The short-lived capital of Moldavia,

Baia Baia (german: Baja, Stadt Molde, or Moldenmarkt; hu, Moldvabánya; lat, Civitas Moldaviae) is a commune in Suceava County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia, northeastern Romania with a population of 6,793 (2002 census).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" ( ro, Valahia Neagră), in Turkish ''Kara-Eflak'', was another name found used for Moldova in the Ottoman period. It derived from

Bogdan I of Moldavia Bogdan I, or Bogdan the Founder ( ro, Bogdan Întemeietorul), was the first independent ruler, or voivode, of Moldavia in the 1360s. He had initially been the voivode, or head, of the Vlachs in the Voivodeship of Maramureș in the Kingdom of Hun ...

; in Ottoman Turkish usage his state was known as ''Kara-Bogdan'' ( ro, Cara-bogdan) and ''Bogdan-Eflak'', "Bogdan's Wallachia".

Etymology

Bogdania

Wallachia

References

Sources

Further reading