A bugle is literally a "little bull" — the instrument takes its name from the wild ox whose horns were hollowed out to make the first hunting horns.
A brass instrument without valves, used for military signals. Originally a hunting horn. Also the plant bugle (Ajuga) and a tubular bead.
From Old French bugle (buffalo, wild ox), short for bugle horn (horn of a wild ox), from Latin buculus (young bull, steer), diminutive of bos (ox, cow) Key roots: buculus (Latin: "young bull"), *gʷṓws (Proto-Indo-European: "cow, ox").
A bugle is literally a "little bull" — because the earliest hunting horns were made from the hollowed-out horns of wild oxen. The Latin diminutive buculus (young bull) became Old French bugle (wild ox), and the instrument was originally called a bugle horn — a horn made from a bugle (ox). Over time, the animal name was forgotten and bugle came to mean