Ora

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A segment or division of time in ancient Roman tradition typically lasting an hour or a designated period for prayer or work that can also mean a boundary or edge in certain contexts
2. A unit of time measurement used historically denoting an hour or a fixed part of the day often related to scheduled prayers or activities, and alternatively referring to borders or limits in geographical and metaphorical uses
3. An interval marking a specific hour usually connected to religious or daily routines in classical usage, while also describing a periphery or margin in spatial and symbolic meanings

Etymology: The Latin "ōra" meant "edge," "border," or "shore," and that is the sense English inherited. In the spatial and symbolic meanings, the word describes a periphery or margin, the outer limit of something. Its surviving relative in English is "ore," an older word for a shoreline, which came down through Old English "ōra" with the same meaning. The hour sense in the meaning given above does not belong to this word. Latin "hōra," meaning "hour," is a separate word, from Greek "hōra" ("season"), and it is the source of English "hour." The two words only look alike, so the canonical-hour connection is a confusion between them. Keep "ōra" for its edge-and-shore sense, and "hōra" for the hour.

Synonyms: hour, time, moment