It first appears in "The Martyrdom of Saint Shushanik", a 5th-century work of Georgian hagiographic literature.
A later chronicle, that of Leonti Mroveli, derives "aznauri" from the semi-legendary ruler Azon (Georgian –uri is a common adjectival suffix), whose 1,000 soldiers defected him and were subsequently named aznauri by Azon’s victorious rival Parnavaz.
A higher substratum began to be distinguished by adding the title of "didebuli", i.e., the aznauri who held "dideba", an especially high courtier office.
Later in the Middle Ages, a clearer distinction was made between an aznauri (now dependent noble), and a tavadi and mtavari (dynastic prince); from the 15th century, the aznauri was considered a qma (literally, "vassal") of his lord, either secular or ecclesiastic.
This form of dependence was later subjected to a formal regulation under Vakhtang VI’s Code of Laws which was codified between 1705 and 1708, and loosely governed a Georgian version of feudalism (batonq’moba) even after the Russian annexation of Georgia early in the 19th century.