Etymology

Possibly a borrowing from Albanian bukur ‎(“nice, beautiful”), but semantic difficulties exist. Alternatively, a substratum Dacian or other Paleo-Balkanic word, akin to Albanian. Another possible theory suggests a Vulgar Latin root *voculāre ("to call, yell"), from Latin vōcula, from vōx ‎(“voice”), with meaning possibly confused with or influenced by *bacchulāre, from bacchor ‎(“celebrate”), and that the Albanian word, possibly of Turkish origin, simply coincides with the Romanian one. It is also, contrary to folk etymology, probably not related to the name of the legendary shepherd Bucur, who according to popular belief gave his name to the capital city of Romania, București; the name itself may be a remnant of a lost pastoral word originally based on Latin buculus ‎(“young bull, ox, steer”) (compare Old French bugle, French beugler, also Dalmatian buc). ^[1]