busca

Busca is a term used in several Romance languages, especially Portuguese and Spanish, to denote the act of searching or seeking. In Portuguese, busca is a noun referring to the process of looking for something or pursuing a goal, as in busca de informações or busca de emprego. In Spanish, the corresponding noun is usually búsqueda, while busca exists primarily as a verb form (él busca) and is less common as a stand-alone noun in modern usage.

Etymology: The word derives from the same Latin roots that produced related terms in Iberian Romance languages, and it shows similar meanings across Portuguese, Galician, and other related varieties.

Usage and scope: In Portuguese, busca is widely used in everyday language and in specialized domains such as information retrieval and computer science. Examples include a "busca de informações," a "busca de emprego," and "mecanismo de busca" for search engines. In computing, "busca" denotes the action of searching and appears in terms like "busca binária" (binary search), "busca em profundidade" (depth-first search), and "busca em largura" (breadth-first search).

Cross-linguistic notes: In other languages, the status of the term varies. Spanish normally prefers "búsqueda" as the noun for search; "busca" is mainly seen as a verb form of buscar, and may appear in older texts or fixed expressions. Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese in particular, widely uses busca in both general and technical contexts.

See also: búsqueda, buscar.