köken: Like obsolete Buhu, Schuhu, an alteration of early modern German Huhu, itself an onomatopoeic reduplication of *Hu, from Middle High German hūwe, huo, from Old High German hūwo (“nightowl”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūō (“owl”).
köken: From Byzantine Greek μποῦφος (mpoûphos, “eagle owl”), from Late Latin būfus (“owl”). Or further from Ancient Greek βοῦφος (boûphos, “eagle owl”). A borrowing is necessary because of the well-established bilabial spirantization, which is missing in the term. With the seldom occurrence of the Ancient Greek word, a derivation becomes less likely.
owl (with ear tufts) · great horned owl, long eared owl
köken: Equivalent to 부엉 (bueong, “hoot”, onomatopoeia) + -이 (-i, noun-deriving suffix). First attested as Middle Korean 부〮허ᇰ (pwúhèng) in the Hunminjeong'eum haerye (訓民正音解例 / 훈민정음해례), 29a, 1446, without the suffix. With the suffix, first attested as Early Modern Korean 부헝이 (pwuhengi) in the Yeogeoyuhae (譯語類解 / 역어유해), 下:27b, 1690.
köken: An onomatopoeia, related to uhog, the dialectal variant of huhog. The German Uhu (“Eurasian eagle owl”) probably also contributed to its spread in zoological jargon and colloquial language. First attested in 1822.