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 Old Galician-Portuguese bufo, from Late Latin būfus (cognates include Spanish búho), itself either from Latin *būfō, from Faliscan *būfō, or more likely of onomatopoetic origin; cf. also Ancient Greek βοῦφος (boûphos). Compare to Latin būbō.
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.
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.