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buză

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word buză

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1475 More words from the 15th century

Pronunciation

Forms

buză f (plural buze)[1] An old variant is buze, used as a singular.[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.[2][4] DELR, following Philippide, Rosetti, Russu, Poghirc and Brâncuș, classes it as a word of the pre-Roman substrate, with a cognate in Albanian buzë (“lip”) and a related Bulgarian буза (buza, “cheek”).[2] DEX and MDA2 only compare the Albanian word, and MDA2 the Bulgarian one too.[5][3] DELR notes Çabej's and Poghirc's comparisons with ancient place and personal names of the region, such as the name of Byzantium.[2] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary also derives the Bulgarian, Romanian and Albanian words from a Balkan substrate, and finds less likely the view that Albanian passed it to the other two.[6]

DA calls it of unknown origin, a word found in Albanian and Bulgarian as well, without a way to tell which language was the source.[2] Ciorănescu derives it, probably, from bot (“snout”) or Vulgar Latin *botum (“snout”), with the suffix -ză as in pupăză and coacăză; he takes the sense “top, ridge” as his evidence, and in his view the Albanian word comes from Romanian.[4] Tiktin calls it a widespread word and finds a link with French bouder (“to sulk”) likelier than one with Latin.[7] Wiktionary gives both lines: a derivative of the noun for “snout” with the suffix, or a substrate word related to Albanian.[1]

Ciorănescu finds none of the proposed Latin sources convincing.[4] Miklosich and Cihac started from Latin bāsium (“kiss”), Schuchardt from a blend of it with bucca (“mouth, cheek”), and Pușcariu from a reconstructed Latin root, a view DA gave up.[4][8] Vaillant thought of a Slavic word for “lip” or “kiss”.[4]

South of the Danube it is Aromanian budzã, in the north of the Aromanian area also buză, and Megleno-Romanian buză.[9][10][11] Ciorănescu also sees it as the source of Polish buzia (“mouth (in children's speech)”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1475, and DELR finds it as the surname of a Mirce Buze in a document of 1492; the derivative buzat “thick-lipped” is older still, in the place name Buzați of 1470.[7][2] In Romanian texts it appears in the 17th century with the sense “lip”: a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660 glosses Slavonic words for the lips with buzele, and Dosoftei's verse psalter of 1673 has buze.[12] MDA2 dates its first record to the psalter.[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is the lip; by analogy the word names the rim of a vessel, the edge of a ditch or a forest, the crest of a hill and the edge of a blade.[2][5] Ciorănescu also lists the edge of a wound and the labia.[4] The Bible of 1688 uses it well over a hundred times, mostly in the plural buzele.[13]

Many idioms grew around it: a rămâne cu buzele umflate “to be left disappointed”, a-și mușca buzele “to regret bitterly”, a-i crăpa cuiva buza după ceva “to want something badly”, a lăsa buza “to be about to cry”, and cu sufletul la buze “at the point of death”.[5][3][7] A technical sense names the flange of a railway wheel.[5] In Aromanian the word also means “grief, vexation”.[9]

Timeline

  • 1470 – Buzați, a place name formed on the derivative buzat.[2]
  • 1475 – the first record of the word that Tiktin gives.[7]
  • 1492 – Mirce Buze, a personal name.[2]
  • c. 1660 – buzele “the lips” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[12]
  • 1673 – buze in Dosoftei's verse psalter.[3]
  • 1688 – buză and buzele in the Bucharest Bible.[14][13]
  • 1726 – Buzilă, a nickname for a thick-lipped person.[2]
  • 1780–1801 – the diminutive buzișoară.[2]
  • 1847 – buzău “sulky”.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. lip: either of the two fleshy parts that border the mouth and cover the teeth;[5][3][1] buză de iepure “harelip”.[5][3][1]
  2. The edge of a deep wound.[5]
  3. The rim of a vessel or other object: plin până în buză “full to the brim”.[5]
  4. The crest of a hill or peak; the edge of a ditch or a forest.[5][2]
  5. The cutting edge of a tool.[5]
  6. (railways) The flange of the tyre of a railway wheel, which keeps it on the rail.[5]

Word family

  • buzat
  • buzăi
  • buzățel
  • buzățică
  • buzău
  • buziș
  • buzișoară
  • buzișor
  • buzoi
  • buzos

Usage notes

The plural buze is used in most idioms: a se linge pe buze “to have to give something up”, a sufla în buze “to be left empty-handed”.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. buză
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 269
  4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. buză
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 129
  6. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 87
  7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. buză
  8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 31
  9. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 224
  10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 233
  11. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 102
  12. ^ a b 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. buzele
  13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Psalms 11:2
  14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 3 Kings 7:23
Cite this entry

“Buză.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/buz%C4%83. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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