horary

Etymology

From Medieval Latin hōrārius, from hōra (“hour”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔːɹəɹi/

Adjective

horary (not comparable)

1. Pertaining to an hour or hours.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spectator to this entry?)

2. Occurring every hour; hourly.
3. (obsolete) Having a duration of just an hour; short-lived.
   • Sir Thomas Browne

     horary, or soon decaying, fruits of summer

4. (astrology, of a question) Whose answer can be worked out by drawing up a horoscope of the exact time the question was asked.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 276:

     But every kind of personal problem could be dealt with as an horary question.

   • 2006, Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor, Arrow 2007, p. 295:

     This aspect of astrology impinged on medicine too, since an horary question could be a request for diagnosis, in which case the doctor might answer it by inspecting not just the arrangement of the heavens but also a sample of the patient's urine, bearing in mind when it was passed or when it was brought to him.

Noun

horary (plural horaries)

1. (rare, ecclesiastical) A book containing the divine offices for the various canonical hours.
2. A narrative or account that is kept hourly.
3. A plan or programme that gives the hours at which events are to take place; a timetable; a horarium.

References

• “horary” in John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors, The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.