Unknown. Probably of expressive origin ultimately. Perhaps starting from the root coc, with the plural cocuri, with a suffix -(u)ză; cf. buburuz, buburuză, from bob (“grain or bean”), and duduruză. Compare Serbo-Croatian kukuruz, Bulgarian кукуруз (kukuruz), Slovak kukurica, Czech kukuřice, Polish kukurydza, Russian кукуруза (kukuruza), Ottoman Turkish قوقوروز, Albanian kokërr. Some etymologies suggest that the source for the word in many of these other languages was ultimately Romanian; however this remains uncertain. Another possibility is of Turkish and Albanian origin. It is more likely that there is a deeper common root between them, or that the ultimate origin is still undetermined. Some similarities with words in other languages may be seen as well, but it is uncertain whether they are coincidences, share a common root (one proposal by Battisti being an ancient Mediterranean root cuccur), or simply developed out of a similar process of expressive creation: compare Italian cocoruzzo (“pear-shaped peak or summit”), Salentino cuccuruzzo ("heap of stones in a pyramidal shape"), Tarentino cucuruzze (“rounded peak”), Milanese cocorin ("pine cone"), Greek κουκούρι (koukoúri, “heap of earth”), etc.[1]
cucuruz m (plural cucuruzi)
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
| nominative/accusative | (un) cucuruz | cucuruzul | (niște) cucuruzi | cucuruzii |
| genitive/dative | (unui) cucuruz | cucuruzului | (unor) cucuruzi | cucuruzilor |
| vocative | cucuruzule | cucuruzilor | ||