Matica

Matica (about "mother fund") is the name of the Slavic associations that arose in the 19th century in the Habsburg Monarchy to support literary activity, to disseminate useful writings and generally to promote national interests or, analogously, the name of other similar Slavic associations.

history

The oldest Matica is the Serbian one, which was founded in Pest in 1826 and moved to Neusatz in 1864 . In addition, a Czech in Prague (1831), a Croatian in Agram (1842), an Upper Sorbian in Bautzen (1847), a Ukrainian in Lemberg (1848), a Moravian in Brno (1853), a Dalmatian in Zara (1862) , a Slovak in Martin (1863), a Slovenian in Laibach (1864), a Polish in Lemberg (1880) and a Lower Sorbian in Kottbus (1880).

The word is derived from the Slavic word for mother ( mat (i) ) and quite generally literally means something like "important maternal / mother-like something". As a name for an association, the word comes from the Serbian and Croatian ( matica ), where the name for the meaning “queen bee, source” comes from the word matica. The Slovak ( matica ) and Czech words ( matice ) were taken over to mean club based on the Serbian model. The Polish name ( macierz ) actually means motherland, fatherland or matrix in the sense of breeding ground and the like. Ä. The Upper Sorbian equivalent is maćica .

societies

• Matica srpska (Serbs), 1826
• Maćica Serbska (Sorbs), 1847
• Matica hrvatska , formerly "Matica ilirska"
• Matica slovenská
• Matice česká
• Matice moravská
• Matice slezská , formerly "Matice opavská"
• Macierz Polska
• Matice svatohostýnská

literature

• Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 13. Leipzig 1908, p. 437.