Origins
The Hungarian and Latin words (Latin was the kingdom's language of administration until the 19th century) could also be used in the more general sense of "a nobleman," but they had the specific meaning identifying a noble person of this particular rank in the kingdom. The Slovak version of the title stemmed from an old broader word related to "land" (zem) that they were given when the largest number of them were ennobled, which was in return for helping King Béla IV to defend the country during the Mongol invasions of 1241-1242. To serve in arms when called on became one of the zemans' few obligations towards the king.
Read more about this topic: Zeman (nobleman)
Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“The origins of clothing are not practical. They are mystical and erotic. The primitive man in the wolf-pelt was not keeping dry; he was saying: “Look what I killed. Aren’t I the best?””
—Katharine Hamnett (b. 1948)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)