Despot (court title)

Despot (from Greek: δεσπότης, despótēs, "lord", "master") was a senior Byzantine that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent. From Byzantium it spread throughout the late medieval Balkans (Bulgarian and Serbian: деспот, despót), and was also granted in the states under Byzantine influence, such as the Latin Empire, Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Empire of Trebizond. It gave rise to several principalities termed "despotates" which were ruled either as independent states or as appanages by princes bearing the title of despot, most notably the Despotate of Epirus, the Despotate of the Morea and the Serbian Despotate. In English, the feminine form of the title is despotess (from Greek δεσπότισσα, despótissa; Serbian and Bulgarian деспотица, despotítsa), which denoted the spouse of a despot, but the transliterated traditional female equivalent of despotes, despoina (δέσποινα, "lady of the house"), is also commonly used.

The term must not be confused with its modern usage, which refers to despotism, a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. The semantic shift undergone by the term is mirrored by tyrant, an ancient Greek word that originally bore no negative connotation, and the Latin dictator, a constitutionally sanctioned office of the Roman Republic. In colloquial Modern Greek, the word is often used to refer to a bishop.

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