A wójt is the highest administrative officer of a Polish rural gmina, i.e., of a commune (gmina) comprising only villages. (The head of a town or city is called, respectively, the burmistrz or "president".)
History and etymology
thumb|Trial before the by (1873), [[National Museum, Warsaw|National Museum in Warsaw]]
The word wójt derives from the Latin advocatus, via the German 'Vogt'.
In medieval Poland, a wójt (advocatus in documents written in Latin) was a hereditary (later elected) head of a town (under the overlordship of the town's owner – the king, church, or noble) or other area of settlement, which was established on or transferred to the Magdeburg rights, as well as the head of the local court (in Latin capitaneus). It this respect, a wójt was the head of the territory called "" (Polish: wójtostwo; Lithuanian: vajtija, vaitystė; Latin: advocatia). In private towns, wójts were appointed by the owner or were elected by the community.
From this title derive surnames such as Wójtowicz/Voytovych, Starovoyt, Starovoytov, Voytenko, Voitiuk, and Voytov. (These are not to be confused with surnames derived from "Wojtek", which is a diminutive of "Wojciech").
Wójt in modern times
In modern Poland the elected position of wójt of a (in an the equivalent positions are burmistrz and ) is an element of the local government of the lowest level, and it is defined by the Polish law about gmina self-government.
The position of wójt is not the same as the position of the chairman of the gmina council (przewodniczący rady gminy). Wójt is the executive function of gmina (the title for the executive position is "burmistrz" if the administration is located in a gmina town and "town president" in towns with population over 100,000) (Article 26). These positions (and of their deputies) can be held only by Polish citizens and cannot be shared with the same position in another gmina or with a number of other administrative positions.