hour

/aʊ.əɹ/·noun·13th century·Established

Origin

From Greek 'hṓra' meaning 'season' — a word that narrowed from an entire season to just sixty minutes, distant cousin of 'year.'

Definition

A period of 60 minutes; one twenty-fourth of a day.

The Full Story

Greek via Latin and French13th century (in English)well-attested

From Anglo-Norman houre, from Old French ore, hore, from Latin hora (hour, time, season), borrowed from Greek hora (season, time of day, hour). Greek hora derives from PIE *yeh1r- (year, season), which also produced English "year" (via Proto-Germanic *jeran), German Jahr (year), Latin hornus (this year's), and Avestan yare (year). The semantic narrowing is dramatic: PIE *yeh1r- meant an entire year

Did you know?

The 'h' in 'hour' is silent because the word entered English from French, which had already dropped the Latin h-. English later restored the 'h' in spelling to match the Latin hōra, but never restored the pronunciation — creating one of English's classic spelling traps.

Hour Wiki Article· 3 min read

. The initial H in English "hour" comes from Latin spelling, but it has been silent since the Old French stage — hence "an hour" not "a hour." The Greek Horai were also goddesses of the seasons, daughters of Zeus and Themis, connecting timekeeping to divine order. The word's journey from "year" to "hour" is one of the most extreme semantic compressions in Indo-European: a cycle that once measured the full turning of seasons now measures sixty minutes. Key roots: hōra (Latin: "hour, time of day"), ὥρα (hṓra) (Ancient Greek: "season, period, hour"), *yeh₁r- (Proto-Indo-European: "year, season").

This Word in Other Languages

heure(French)hora(Spanish)ora(Italian)Uhr(German (clock/hour, from same Latin hora))hora(Portuguese)

Also from Greek via Latin and French

decade amethyst anagram absinth agate anise

Latinc. 3rd century BCE

hōra“hour, season, time of day”

Ancient Greekc. 8th century BCE

ὥρα (hṓra)“season, time, period, hour”

Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4000 BCE

*yeh₁r-“year, season”

hour

Origin

Definition

The Full Story

See also

Ancient Roots

This Word in Other Languages

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Word Family

Also from Greek via Latin and French