. "Voivode (Old Slavic, literally \"war-leader\" or \"war-lord\") is a Slavic title that originally denoted the principal commander of a military force. It derives from the word vojevoda, which in early Slavic meant the bellidux, i.e. the military commander of an area, but it usually had a greater meaning. In Byzantine times it was used to refer to mainly military commanders of Slavic populations, especially in the Balkans."@en . . .