hora Latin · revision 3663

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=Plautus|origins=grc ὥρα}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (Classical): [ˈhoː.ra]^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈɔː.ra]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''hōra''' ''f'' (genitive hōrae); first declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|grc|ὥρα|tr=hṓra|t=time, season, hour]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Saalfeld 1874) The Greek word is from [[ine-pro|*yeh₁-|t=year, season]], the root of [[en|year]].^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is found from Plautus onwards,^(Köbler 2010) in a famous fragment cursing “the man who first discovered the hours and set up a sundial here”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was a twelfth part of the day between sunrise and sunset, or of the night, so that the hours varied in length with the season.^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016) It meant a particular hour or a fixed time, as Cicero's “at that very hour I had received your letter”, and the length of an hour, as Terence's “an hour went by while he talked”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ The poets used it of a season of the year, as Horace's god who rules the world with changing seasons, and of the span of life.^(OLD 2012) In Christian Latin the ''horae'' were the canonical hours of prayer, and in Medieval Latin it also meant prayer.^(Köbler 2010) It survives as Italian ''ora'' and Spanish and Portuguese ''hora'', and English ''hour'' came from it through Old French about 1200, first for the canonical hours.^(Wiktionary)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus mentions the hours and the sundial.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of the length of an hour.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a particular hour.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of the seasons.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 1200 – English ''hour'' is recorded.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|hour]] (a twelfth part of the day or night).^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(plural)'' The hour marks on a [[m|en|sundial]] or clock.^(OLD 2012)

+ # A particular hour; a fixed time.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The direction of the sun at a certain hour.^(OLD 2012)

+ # The length of an hour; a short time.^(OLD 2012)

+ # A [[m|en|season]] of the year.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The span of life.^(OLD 2012)

+ # ''(Christian Latin)'' A canonical hour; prayer.^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[horalis]]

+ * [[hōrārium]]

+ * [[sēmihōra]]

+ * [[sēsquihōra]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[hōrologium]]

+ * [[en|hour]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Hora was also an old Italian goddess, ''Hora Quirini'', the wife of Quirinus, identified by Ovid with Romulus' wife Hersilia.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}