bucuros

Forms

bucuros m or n (feminine singular bucuroasă, masculine plural bucuroși, feminine/neuter plural bucuroase)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian bucura + -os, the verb meaning “to rejoice” with the adjective suffix.^[2][3][4][1] Scriban derives it from the noun bucurie instead.^[5] The origin of the verb is disputed: DELR starts from a substrate adjective bucur “beautiful, pleasant”, kept in place and personal names and compared with Albanian bukur (“beautiful”), while Ciorănescu derives the verb from Vulgar Latin *voculō (“to shout”).^[6][7]

DELR records the adjective south of the Danube as well, and Capidan gives the form Megleno-Romanian bucuros, also pronounced bucuruăs.^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1478, from the dictionary of Romanian words in the Slavonic charters (DERS).^[9] The first Romanian text is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, which has the plural bucuroșii in Psalm 131:9.^[10][6] There it means “glad, joyful”, as it does today.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the adjective took the cause of joy with de or in the dative: Ureche writes that „toți erau bucuroși de venirea lui” “all were glad at his coming to the throne”, and Miron Costin „bucuros acestui prilej” “glad of this opportunity”.^[9] A fi bucuros cuiva “to be fond of someone” is now obsolete.^[3] With să it came to express preference: a fi mai bucuros să… “to prefer to…”.^[4][11] A fi bucuros de oaspeți means to welcome guests gladly.^[11]

Used as an adverb it means “gladly, willingly”: Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders it with Latin lubens and libenter, and the Lexicon de la Buda (1825) lists the adverb beside the adjective.^[12][13] In some regions bucuros! is a polite reply, “you're welcome”.^[4] Creangă formed the intensive răzbucuros “very glad” in 1877.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1478 – the first record, in a Slavonic charter.^[9]
• c. 1500–1520 – bucuroșii in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 131:9).^[10][6]
• 1570 – bucuros in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 41:5).^[14]
• 1649 – bucuroase in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – bucuros in the Bucharest Bible (Luke 19:6).^[16]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary renders it with Latin lubens, libenter.^[12]
• 1877 – the intensive răzbucuros in Creangă.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. glad, joyful: filled with joy or showing it; by extension, cheerful: Sunt bucuros că ai venit. “I'm glad you came.”^[4][3]
2. (often adverbial) Doing something gladly, with all one's heart;^[4][11] a fi mai bucuros să… “to prefer to…”.^[4][11]
3. (adverbial, regional) A polite formula: “you're welcome”, “please”.^[4]

Word family

• răzbucuros

Related words

• bucura
• bucurie
• Megleno-Romanian bucuros

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. bucuros
3. ^ a b c 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 g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 122
5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 201
6. ^ 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
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 46
9. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bucuros
10. ^ a b 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 131:9
11. ^ a b c d Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 97
12. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 319
13. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 71
14. ^ 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 41:5
15. ^ 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. bucuroase
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 19:6