barză

Etymology
Compare 🇨🇬: both it and the Romanian word may derive from, akin to 🇨🇬.

Another theory suggests that its origin is a root *gardea, from  (compare 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, also 🇨🇬). The confusion of g and b is somewhat unusual, but may be explained as a Balkan influence. Other cases in Romanian include, , , (compare also 🇨🇬, from 🇨🇬).

A third proposal is borrowing from a Dacian *barza meaning "stork", derived from a Proto-Indo-European root, also reflected in e.g. 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.

Alternatively, the Romanian word may derive from, possibly from or via , from. Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian [dz] excludes the root *barza, requiring instead *bardza. The sound change from Proto-Indo-European "sr̥" is only attested for Thracian [br] in but, due to its conspicuity, it is uncertain whether it occurred as well in Dacian and with a vowel in between. These etymologies don't explain the regional variants and, that provide evidence for [d] in the term of origin and could solely be explained by another borrowing from early unattested Old Albanian  or.

Noun

 * 1) stork