Дедъ / Дедьць / djed. За титулатурата на босненския ересиарх

The article attempts to analyze the lexeme дедъ / дедьць / djed, displaying the meaning ‘grandfather’, ‘elder’, or ‘forerunner’ in the oldest Slavic monuments. In Middle Bulgarian texts (the Synodicon of Tsar Boril from 1211), the diminutive form дедьць is used with reference to the elder of a Bogomil community (дедьць Средьчьскыи). The followers of the Bosnian heterodoxy only used the form djed, interpreted differently from scholar to scholar depending on the adopted conception of the Bosnian Church and its character. The review of the semantics of the term dědъ as part of the general Slavic linguistic picture demonstrates that it denoted the leader of a local dissident community, a spiritual father and teacher of Bosnian Christians. Thus, the word testifies to the presence of Balkan Manichaean influence on the religious life of Bosnia and Herzegovina.