CURSES      -     is a pun on the name "cursor optimization".
The Curses library forms a wrapper over working with raw terminal codes, and provides highly flexible and efficient API (Application Programming Interface). It provides functions to move the cursor, create windows, produce colors, play with mouse etc. The Application programs need not worry about the underlying terminal capabilities.
NCURSES
Ncurses is a clone of the original System V Release 4.0 (SVr4) curses. It is a freely distributable library, fully compatible with older version of curses. In short, it is a library of functions that manages an application's display on character-cell terminals.

The ncurses library routines give the user a terminal- independent method of updating character screens with reasonable optimization. The curses package is a subroutine library for terminal-independent screen-painting and input-event handling which presents a high level screen model to the programmer, hiding differences between terminal types and doing automatic optimization of output to change one screenfull of text into another. Curses uses terminfo, which is a database format that can describe the capabilities of thousands of different terminals.

The curses API may seem something of an archaism on UNIX desktops increasingly dominated by X, Motif, and Tcl/Tk. Nevertheless, UNIX still supports tty lines and X supports xterm; the curses API has the advantage of back-portability to character-cell terminals, and simplicity. For an application that does not require bit-mapped graphics and multiple fonts, an interface implementation using curses will typically be a great deal simpler and less expensive than one using an X toolkit.
Ncurses not only creates a wrapper over terminal capabilities, but also gives a robust framework to create nice looking UI (User Interface)s in text mode. It provides functions to create windows etc. Its sister libraries panel, menu and form provide an extension to the basic curses library. These libraries usually come along with curses. One can create applications that contain multiple windows, menus, panels and forms. Windows can be managed independently, can provide 'scrollability' and even can be hidden.
Menus provide the user with an easy command selection option. Forms allow the creation of easy-to-use data entry and display windows. Panels extend the capabilities of ncurses to deal with overlapping and stacked windows.