Wikipedia
Okres ( Czech and Slovak term meaning "County" in English; from Old Slavic окрьсть - around) refers to administrative entities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It can be compared to the - okrestnost and the , meaning bordering area(s).
The first counties, both in the Czech lands and Slovakia, developed from domains in 1850 by the decision of the Imperial government of Austria (they've also been called processus (slúžnovský okres) in Slovakia since the 1860s). The organisation and functions of the counties started to diverge in the course of the following decades, and were finally unified only in 1918 with the creation of Czechoslovakia. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the county system was taken over by the two current successor states.