Duke

A duke (male) (British English: /djuːk/ or American English: /duːk/) or duchess (female) can either be a monarch ruling over a duchy or a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch. The title comes from French duc, itself from the Latin dux, 'leader', a term used in republican Rome to refer to a military commander without an official rank (particularly one of Germanic or Celtic origin), and later coming to mean the leading military commander of a province.

During the Middle Ages the title (as Herzog) signified first among the Germanic monarchies. Dukes were the rulers of the provinces and the superiors of the counts in the cities and later, in the feudal monarchies, the highest-ranking peers of the king. A duke may or may not be, ipso facto, a member of the nation's peerage: in the United Kingdom and Spain all dukes are/were also peers of the realm, in France some were and some were not, while the term is not applicable to dukedoms of other nations, even where an institution similar to the peerage (e.g., Grandeeship, Imperial Diet, Hungarian House of Magnates) existed.

VDM Publishing

VDM Publishing or Omniscriptum Publishing Group is a German publishing group based in Saarbrücken, Germany, with offices in Argentina,Latvia, Mauritius and Moldova. Its book production is based on print on demand technology.

VDM publishing's imprints—Alphascript, Betascript, Fastbook Publishing and Doyen Verlag—specialize in publishing and selling Wikipedia articles in printed form via print on demand, in e-commerce bookstores. Alphascript distributes publications through several on-line book retailers. At least some of the books are printed by Amazon.com. As of November 2010, around 150,000 such titles have been produced. In June 2010, VDM started its own online-bookshop: MoreBooks! Publishing.

VDM's publishing methods have received criticism for the soliciting of manuscripts from thousands of individuals, for providing non-notable authors with the appearance of a peer-reviewed publishing history, for benefiting from the free contributions of online volunteers, and for insufficiently disclosing the free nature of their content. VDM responds that it is a valuable, quality resource, that the company has no problem asking authors for content, that buyers are informed of where information comes from, that books are a convenient form to collect articles about interesting subjects, and that its customers are satisfied with VDM's products. VDM Publishing is designated as non-scientific by the Norwegian Scientific Index.

Ducové

Ducové is a municipality (village) situated in western Slovakia, near the spa town of Piešťany. It was part of the municipality Moravany nad Váhom from 1976 to 1992. The village lies under the Váh Inovec. According to the 2011 census, the municipality had 375 inhabitants. 365 of inhabitants were Slovaks and 10 others and unspecified.

Etymology

The name of the village is derived from dux-ducis meaning duke.Duka was also a borrowed word used by the Slavs for a person with a prominent social status. The village was known as 1348 Duchreuy, 1453 Duczev, 1521 De-chobrod, 1532, 1638 Ducibrod, 1576 Ducybrod, 1636 Duczowa, 1664 Ducó, 1667 Duczo, 1668 Duczove, 1693 Duczowa, 1753 Duczó, 1776 Duczo, 1773 Duczo, Dutzo, Duczowe, 1786 Duczo, Duczowce, 1808 Duczó, Ducow, 1863 -1918 Ducó, 1920 Ducov, Ducové, 1927 Ducové.

Great Moravian Court