The Catalan greeting ‘Good day and good time’
Surely you have heard the greeting ‘Bon dia i bona ora’ in Catalan. According to Catalan dictionaries, this expression is written as ‘Bon dia i bona hora!’, but there is a debate about whether it should be written without the letter ‘h’. Some people have associated the word ‘ora’ with the concept of ‘hora’ (part of the day) being next to ‘dia’, but it most likely refers to the concept of ‘ora’, written without ‘hache’.
The meaning of ‘ora’
The word ‘ora’ (without ‘hache’) was traditionally used to refer to a ‘soft, pleasant wind’. Its origin dates back to the Latin ‘aura’, which means ‘breeze’ or ‘light wind’. Furthermore, the expressions ‘fer bona ora’ and ‘fer mala ora’ are used to indicate ‘good weather’ and ‘bad weather’, respectively, without specifically referring to the presence or absence of wind.
Regional use of expressions
In the south of Catalonia, as well as in other traditional places in the region, these expressions are common and are used to wish good or bad weather. In short, when saying ‘Bon dia i bona ora!’, the speaker is probably wishing the other person to enjoy good weather during the day, without cold, frost or hail that could spoil it.
The derivative ‘orage’
The word ‘oratge’ acts in a similar way. Originally, it meant ‘wind, especially if it is not very strong’. In some regions, diminutive suffixes are added to refer to a soft wind. However, nowadays, ‘oratge’ is also used to describe the ‘state of the atmosphere’ at a specific time and place, becoming synonymous with ‘weather’.
Evolution of meaning
In different regions, the meaning of ‘oratge’ has evolved from referring to a ‘little wind’ to describing the ‘weather situation’ in general, encompassing not only the presence of wind, but also rain, sun, snow, among other phenomena.