ahora

Meaning

Frequency

A1
Hyphenated as
a‧ho‧ra
Pronounced as (IPA)
/aˈoɾa/
Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish agora, from Latin hāc hōrā (“at this time”). According to Coromines and Pascual, the original form agora was, from the early modern period, increasingly left to both high and low registers, in favour of the phonetically reduced ahora. Francisco de Quevedo in the early 17th century mocks agora in his Cuento de Cuentos as a "rustic vulgarity", although the term continued to be used by archaizing poets into the 19th century, and it continues to survive to this day in various non-prestigious dialects. As for ahora, there is a very rare early attestation (spelled aora) in Juan Ruiz in the early 14th century, but the term doesn't enter common written usage until the 16th century with writers like Cervantes and Góngora, side-by-side the older agora. Compare Portuguese agora.

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