Pl. starosti. Also anglicized 6 starust, 8 stahrost, 7–9 starost(e. [Russian староста, Polish starosta, lit. ‘elder.’]
1. In Russia, the head man of a village-community.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw., x. 33. Besides these … there are Starusts or Aldermen for euerie seuerall companie.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 84. One family, whose chief … performs the functions of staroste, or magistrate of the village.
1799. W. Tooke, View Russ. Emp., I. 460. Their elders, whom they still … style Starosts.
1810. E. D. Clarke, Trav. Russia (1839), 37/1. Any person arriving in a town or village, must produce his [passport] to the starosta.
1833. R. Pinkerton, Russia, 281. They … are governed by their own elders or starosti.
1901. Scotsman, 5 April, 7/2. At Nijni Novgorod … the starosta, or chief of the village artel, comes to buy the supply of material.
2. In the former kingdom of Poland, a noble holding a castle and domain bestowed by the Crown.
1670. Lond. Gaz., No. 504/1. Major-General Bokumbs … has been lately killed by a Peasant, who was hired to commit the murther by a Staroste.
1827. Bowring, Specim. Polish Poets, 137. His father was the starost of Korytnik.
1896. Cosmopolitan, XX. 445. She assures us that she and her sisters have the bearing ‘becoming young ladies of high station, and daughters of a Staroste.’
