This week I learnt the Russian expression до сих пор ― (do sikh por), which means still, hitherto, up to now, thus far, or literally “until this time”.
The пор comes from пора (pora – time, season, weather, period), which appears in such phrases as:
- пора́ идти́ (pora idti) = it’s time to go
- в са́мую по́ру (v samuju poru) = in the nick of time
- до каки́х пор? (do kakikh por?) = how long?
- с каки́х пор? (s kakikh por?) = since when?
- до тех пор, пока́ (do tekh por, poka) = so long as
- с тех пор, как (s tekh por, kak) = ever since
- на пе́рвых пора́х (na pervykh porakh) = at first
Source: Wiktionary
It’s interesting that пора means both time and weather – some other languages also have one word for both: temps in French, amzer in Breton, aimsir in Irish. Do you know of others?
In Spanish, “tiempo” can represent weather or time.
I think I remember Russian friends pronouncing that first phrase as ‘para idti’, not ‘pora idti’, which agrees with my (basic) understanding of what happens to vowels in unstressed Russian syllables.
It’s the same in Hungarian as well, idő is used for both time and weather.
In Portuguese “tempo” is used for both “time” and “weather”.
Also in Italian “tempo” has two meanings: “time” and “weather”.