Неизвестен старобългарски сан

The article examines unknown until now evidence about a dignitary, holding the title дроугъ / дрѫгъ / дрьгъ / дръгъ / дергъ, which were found in the Slavonic version of Chronographia Georgii Synceli, the Biblical book of Jonah 3: 7 and Martyrium St. Clementis, Papae Romani. These medieval Slavonic texts have been preserved in copied manuscripts from the 14-th –15-th century, but had been translated in Bulgaria centuries earlier, some of them into the Glagolithic alphabet. The Greek equivalents of the Slavonic title (σύγκλητος ἡ, ἐκ τῆς συγκλήτου, συγκλητός ὁ, μεγιστᾶνος, ἄρχων, οἱ ἐν τέλει ὅντες, περιφανής) prove that it was used to refer to a notable person, a boyar, a dignitary, a person of power. It is argued that the different phonetic variants do not depend on the spelling in the manuscripts and that the etymology of the primary form дроугъ was a parallel in the Altayan lexeme даруγа, darga t.e. “who stands at the head, a man of hiegher status”, a borrowing from the Persian dВrоγВ, darova. This Persian-Altayan title was brought by the {protoBulgarians}, but it lost its meaning early, became vague for the Slavonic men of letters, who either “corrected” дроугъ into дрѫгъ or reinterpreted дроугъ according to the Slavonic root дрьг-/дрьж- in the sense thath it signifies streughth and power.