bucura

Forms

bucura (third-person singular present bucură, past participle bucurat, third-person subjunctive bucure) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3][1] The most widely held view, which DELR follows, takes it as a verb formed on an old adjective bucur (“beautiful, pleasant”), which survives only in place and personal names, and compares Albanian bukur (“beautiful”) and bukuroj (“to make beautiful”).^[3] Ovid Densusianu, Pușcariu, Rosetti and Brâncuș hold this view, and most dictionaries give the Albanian comparison, the DA as the source.^[3][4][5][6] NODEX calls the word native, and DELR treats it as an element of the substrate.^[7][3] Cihac, Philippide and Pascu derived it from Albanian, despite the difference in meaning.^[2] The Albanian adjective is recorded from 1555, in Buzuku.^[8]

Ciorănescu rejects the Albanian link as a chance resemblance and derives the verb from Vulgar Latin *vōculō (“to shout”), from Latin vōcula (“small voice”), pointing to Varro's remark that iūbilō (“to shout for joy”) meant to call out in a rustic voice, he also allows a popular mixing with *bacchulō, from bacchor (“to revel”).^[2][1] Other proposals are Latin buccula (“little mouth”), through a sense “to kiss” (Papahagi, Giuglea), pulcher (“beautiful”) (Cipariu) and *avuculō (Crețu), all listed in DELR.^[3]

The verb survives south of the Danube as Aromanian bucurare and Megleno-Romanian bucur.^[9][10][2] The sense “to enjoy, have the benefit of”, with the preposition ⟨de⟩, follows French jouir de and perhaps German sich erfreuen.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb and its derivatives bucurie and bucuros are first recorded in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3][11] Its form bucurați-vă “rejoice” renders Psalm 2:11 there, so the reflexive “to rejoice” is the oldest sense.^[11][3] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 23:26).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive a se bucura “to rejoice, be glad” is the basic sense from the first texts, the transitive “to gladden someone” is recorded in the Bucharest Bible of 1688 and in Neculce.^[6][12][5] The old language also used it of rewarding someone (a bucura cu ceva) and of encouraging or calming someone, as in Nicolae Costin's chronicle.^[6][12]

The sense “to enjoy, possess” (a se bucura de sănătate, de un nume bun) follows French jouir de.^[3][5] The pejorative a se bucura la ceva “to covet, try to profit from” is recorded in the 20th-century dictionaries.^[13][4]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – bucura, bucurie and bucuros in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][11]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]
• 1660 – the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons render a Slavonic word for “I rejoice” with bucur.^[14]
• 1688 – the transitive “to gladden” in the Bucharest Bible.^[12][6]
• 1743 – îmbucura “to gladden” in Neculce.^[3]
• 1822 – îmbucurător “gladdening” in Bobb's dictionary.^[3]
• 1877 – răzbucuros “overjoyed” in Creangă.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To rejoice, be glad: Mă bucur că ai venit.^[4][1]
2. (transitive) To delight, gladden someone: Vestea i-a bucurat pe părinți.^[4][1]
3. (reflexive, with de) To enjoy, have the benefit of: a se bucura de sănătate, also to be much sought after: Spectacolul s-a bucurat de un public numeros.^[4][5]
4. (reflexive, with la, pejorative) To covet, to try to profit from something.^[4][13]
5. (transitive, dated, with cu) To reward someone, to give someone a gift.^[12][6]

Word family

• bucurie
• bucuros
• îmbucura
• îmbucurător
• răzbucuros

Related words

• Aromanian bucurare
• Megleno-Romanian bucur
• Albanian bukur

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. bucura
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. bucura
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 122
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bucura
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. bucura
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. bucura
8. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 218
10. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 99
11. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 2:11
12. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 253
13. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. bucura
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. bucur