BUC

BUC is an acronym meaning blessed/uncursed/cursed. It is usually used in phrases such as "BUC identified", meaning an item whose "BUC status" is known. A more elegant term is beatitude (blessedness).

Noncursed (or !C) is a shorthand way of saying not cursed, i.e. blessed or uncursed. For many items, the blessed and uncursed usage are very similar, but very different from the cursed usage. For example, both blessed and uncursed potions of gain level increase your experience level, but cursed gain level will increase your dungeon level.

Similarly, noncursed armor may be put on and removed at will, while cursed armor is reluctant to be taken off.

An altar can be used to detect the beatitude of an item by means of the coloured flashes when the item is dropped on it.

For some items, such as gold pieces or scrolls of mail, the beatitude has no meaning and is always omitted. For some other items, such as armor or rings without charges, it is not shown if the object is uncursed, even if you have fully identified the item. Also, priests never see the uncursed-status, and can automatically tell the beatitude of any item they see, even if it has yet to be identified.

In-game, the phrase "Items of unknown B/C/U status" appears in the [D]rop menu, but the "BUC" ordering is more common in discussions.