Where does “hour” come from?
Hour comes from Middle English oure, from Latin hora meaning "season" or "time of day," ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European éǵh₂.
hour (English): A time period of sixty minutes; one twenty-fourth...
Definitions
- A time period of sixty minutes; one twenty-fourth...
Ancestry of “hour”, step by step
hour traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English houre
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | houre | hour; A time, occasion, or moment; A canonical... |
| 2 | Old French | houre | hour; time; moment to do something |
| 3 | Latin | hōra | hour |
| 4 | Ancient Greek | ὥρα | any defined period of time; season; climate |
| 5 | Proto-Hellenic | *worā | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | wēr- | true |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | wer- | to burn; to cover, heed, notice; squirrel |
via Middle English [[houre]], [[oure]]
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | [[houre]], [[oure]] | — |