Starosta

Starost(a) (Cyrillic: старост/а, Latin: capitaneus, German: Starost) as a title designates an official or unofficial leader, used in various contexts through most of Slavic history. One can translate it as "senior" or "elder": the word comes from the Slavic root star-, "old". In Poland a starosta would administer a territory called a starostwo.

In the early Middle Ages, the starosta was the head of a Slavic community or of other communities: thus one finds designations such as church starosta, artel starosta, etc. The starosta also functioned as the master of ceremonies in traditional Carpatho-Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Polish weddings, similar to stari svat (стари сват) in Serbian weddings.

In various countries

Starostwo

Starostwo (Polish for "eldership", Belarusian: староства, starostva, German: Starostei), from the 14th century in the Polish Crown and later through the era of the joint state of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the partitions of Poland in 1795, referred to the crown lands (królewszczyzna) administered by the official known as starosta. The starosta would receive the office from the king and would keep it until the end of his life; it usually provided a significant income for the starosta.

His deputy was variously known as podstarosta, podstarości, burgrabia, włodarz, or surrogator.

There were several types of starosta: