Etymology
The name of Bucureşti has an uncertain origin: tradition connects the founding of Bucharest with the name of Bucur who was either a prince, an outlaw, a fisherman, a shepherd, or a hunter, according to different legends. In Romanian the word stem bucur means 'joy', ("beautiful") and it is believed to be of Dacian origin.
There are other etymologies given by early scholars, including the one of Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi, who said that Bucharest is named after a certain "Ebu-Kariş", from the tribe of "Beni-Kureiş". In 1781, Franz Sulzer claimed that it's related to bucurie (joy), bucuros (joyful), a bucura (to become joyful), while an early 19th century book published in Vienna assumed its name is derived from "Bukovie", a beech forest.
The official city name in full is the "Municipality of Bucharest" (Romanian: Municipiul București).
A native or resident of Bucharest is called a "Bucharester" (Romanian: bucureștean).
Read more about this topic: Bucharest
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
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