Rada


Rada is the term for "parliament" or "assembly" or some other "council" in several Slavic languages. Normally it is translated as "council". Sometimes it corresponds to "parliament", or in Soviet Union contexts, to "soviet". It also carries a meaning of advice, as in the English word "counsel".

Etymology

Old High German rāt passed into the Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian languages. Although some researches like K. P. Stanley et al. argued that contrary to the above stated hypothesis that the Germanic languages borrowed the words for council and related terms from Slavic languages.
Alternately the source was the Gothic language radan - ????? - to council, to deliberate, that passed to West Slavic in the Iron Age during the Wielbark and Chernyakhov cultures presence along Vistula river and in Western Ukraine, as the term "rada" may be present in such first millennium CE names as Slavic Radogoszcz, Radgoszcz, Radhošť, Radegost, Radagast, Ardagast - Radogost, and Gothic Radagaisus. The dispersal to East Slavic Languages, could have happened later, possibly through Polish.
Råd in Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish, Rat in German, neuvosto or raati in Finnish and nõukogu or raad in Estonia/Dutch mean "council" or "assembly", but also "advice", as it does in East Slavic and West Slavic, but not South Slavic, languages.
In Swedish the verb råda is based on the substantive råd. This is similar to Danish råd and råde.

Examples

In Belarus
In the Czech Republic
In Poland
In Russia
In Slovakia
In Ukraine
Historically, the Verkhovna Rada was also the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was itself part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the word rada replacing the Russian word soviet in both cases. See official names of the Soviet Union.