Name of Croatia

The name of Croatia derives from Medieval Latin Croātia, itself a derivation of the native Slavic ethnonym, Old Church Slavonic: Xъrvatinъ, Croatian: Hrvat.

Etymologically, the name is theorized to be ultimately cognate with an Old Iranian toponym Arachosia.

Earliest record [edit]

The first attestation of the term is in the charter of duke Trpimir from 852 AD, whose original has been lost but a copy has been preserved from 1568 (Lujo Margetić has propounded in 2002 that the document is in fact of legislative character, dating to AD 840^[1]). The oldest stone inscription is the Branimir Inscription (found in Šopot near Benkovac), where Duke Branimir is mentioned:

BRANIMIRO COM ... DUX CRUATORVM COGIT...

The Old Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ^{[clarification needed]} is of variant stem, and is attested in the earliest Croatian written monument, the Baška tablet from 1100 AD: zvъnъmirъ kralъ xrъvatъskъ ("Zvonimir, king of Croats").

The first foreign-language sources that unambiguously mention the name Croat were written in the 10th century, in the documents of Split Church Councils and the De administrando imperio, written by Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.^[2]

Etymology [edit]

The exact origin of the ethnonym Hrvat (Proto-Slavic *Xъrvatъ, Old Church Slavonic: Xъrvatinъ^[3]) is not known. The most widely-held theory is that of the connection with an Iranian name,^[3] based on the Old Persian toponym Harahvat-, the native name of Arachosia. "Arachosia" is the Latinized form of Greek Ἀραχωσία - Arachosíā. In Old Persian inscriptions, the region is referred to as Harahuvatiš (, from h-r-u-v-t-i-, corresponding to Vedic Sarasvatī).^[4]

The derivation of Proto-Slavic *xъrvatъ /xŭrva:tŭ/ from the Old Persian /xaraxwat-/ seems to be substantiated by a 3rd century Scythian form /xoroaθ-/ (ΧΟΡΟΑΘΟΣ) attested in the Tanais Tablets, an inscription from Tanais.^{[citation needed]}

The Medieval Latin name "Croātia" is derived from North-West Slavic xrovat-, by liquid metathesis from Common Slavic *xorvat-, from Proto-Slavic *xarwāt-.^{[contradictory]}

In Yugoslavia, the publication of Iranian etymologies of the ethnonym was frowned upon politically in favour of the emphasis of a pure Slavic origin of the Croats.^{[citation needed]} Since Croatian independence in 1991, the Iranian etymology of the name has become acceptable.^{[citation needed]} There are still numerous attempts to derive the name from alternative origins; Gołąb (1990) ^[5] proposes a borrowing from Proto-Germanic that came to mean "warriors clad with horn-armour". According to this scenario, an exonym C(h)rovati, Xrōbátoi, Hrváti etc. over time was adopted as a self-designation.

Distribution [edit]

Croatian place names can be found in northern Slavic regions such as Moravia and Slovakia, along the river Saale in Germany, in Austria and Slovenia, and in the south in Greece and Albania.^[6]

Thus in the Duchy of Carinthia one can find Hrvatski kotar and Chrowat along upper Mura; in Middle Ages the following place names have been recorded: Krobathen, Krottendorf, Krautkogel; Kraut near Spittal. In the Duchy of Styria there are toponyms such as Chraberstorf, Krawerspach, Chrawat, etc.

In Slovenia there are Hrovate and Hrovača. In Germany along Saale there were Chruuati, Churbate, and Korbetha, west of Leipzig.

In the southern Balkans, the Republic of Macedonia has a place named Arvati (Арвати) situated near lower Prespa; in Greece there is a Charváti (Χαρβάτι) in Attica and another in Argolis, as well as Charváta (Χαρβάτα) on Crete;^[7] and in Albania, Hirvati.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Look up Croatia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Etymology of Croat, according to Gołąb, Zbigniew: The Origins of the Slavs: A Linguist's View (Columbus: Slavica, 1990)
• Etymology of Croat, according to notable Croatian etymologist Petar Skok