cucuruz
Română · Thesaurus
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cucuruz¹
Where it comes from
Attested 1575 as Cucurezi, the name of a village (today Cucuruzu, Giurgiu County), as Cucuruz from 1621. As maize (cucurudz, triticum turcicum) in Dictionarium Valachico-Latinum (Caransebeș, c. 1650).
From Latin cucullus "hood, doll, cocoon" via a Balkan word – Aromanian cucul, Albanian kukull – with rhotacism l > r and suffix -uz (originally -ëz). The reference is to the wrapped, cocoon-like nature of the maize cob.
The Latin word itself may be a loan from Illyrian.
Older theories posited a development from a base coc – cf. buburuză, from bob "grain, bean" – with a primary meaning of "pine cone".
From Romanian and Serbo-Croatian kukuruz, the word spread into other languages, e.g. Hungarian kukorica, Russian кукуруза, Ottoman Turkish قوقوروز, &c.
Cucuruz²
Where it comes from
From cucuruz.
proper noun lui Cucuruz
- a surname
In English
- maize corn; a type of grain of the species Zea mays
Talk about this word "cucuruz." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ro/cucuruz. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. cucuruz. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ro/cucuruz "cucuruz." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ro/cucuruz.Cite this
@misc{cucuruz_2026,
title = {cucuruz},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ro/cucuruz},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
