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bucurie

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word bucurie

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1500–1520 the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki More words from the 15th century
Ultimate origin
Romanian bucura,-ie
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Romanian bucura
Romanian bucurie
From the same root
Romanian bucuros ← bucura

Pronunciation

  • /bu.kuˈri.e/[1]

Forms

bucurie f (plural bucurii)[1]

Etymology

DEX 2009, MDA2, the DA, Tiktin, Ciorănescu and Wiktionary derive it from Romanian bucura + -ie.[2][3][4][5][6][1] DELR prefers the adjective bucur “beautiful, pleasant”, which survives in place and personal names, with the abstract suffix -ie; it compares the abstract noun Albanian bukuri (“beauty”), and cites Brâncuș for a Common Romanian family of the adjective, the verb and the noun.[7] Scriban took the noun straight from the Albanian word;[8][9][4] CADE and the DA only compare it.[8][9][4]

DELR counts the verb among the substrate words, cognate with bukur (“beautiful”), and lists the older proposals: Vulgar Latin *voculō (“to shout”), buccula (“little mouth”), pulcher (“beautiful”).[7] Ciorănescu himself favoured the Latin verb and thought the likeness to the Albanian word chance.[6]

The noun survives south of the Danube: Aromanian bucurilji and Megleno-Romanian bucuriľă.[7][10][11] Pascu records bucurie too.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.[7][13] MDA2 cites the Codicele Voronețean, where the epistle of James bids the readers turn their joy into sorrow.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “joy” has not changed since the psalters.[4][13] A concrete sense developed, a person, thing or piece of news that gives joy;[2][3] MDA2 marks “good news” as rare.[2][3] The DLRM records the greeting noroc și bucurie “luck and joy”.[14] CADE explains the proverb schimbarea domnilor, bucuria nebunilor “a change of princes is the joy of fools” by the old hope that a new prince would lower taxes.[9][5]

Bucurie is also a Romanian surname.[15][1]

Timeline

  • c. 1500–1520 – bucurie in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, and the adjective bucuros.[7][13]
  • c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.[3][4]
  • 1570 – in Coresi's Psalter.[13]
  • 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[16]
  • 1688 – over a hundred times in the Bucharest Bible.[17]
  • 1743 – the verb îmbucura in Neculce.[7]
  • 1822 – îmbucurător “gladdening” in Bobb's dictionary.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. joy: a lively feeling of contentment and inner satisfaction.[2][3] Cu bucurie or cu toată bucuria means “gladly”.[2]
  2. (concrete) Something or someone that gives joy;[2][3] (rare) good news.[2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 122
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 253
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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. bucurie
  5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bucurie
  6. ^ a b 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
  7. ^ a b c d e f g 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
  8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 201
  9. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
  10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
  11. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 99
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b c d 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
  14. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 97
  15. ^ Iordan, Iorgu (1983), Dicționar al numelor de familie românești, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 83
  16. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
  17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
Cite this entry

“Bucurie.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/bucurie. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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