now

pronunciation

How to pronounce now in British English: UK [naʊ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce now in American English: US [naʊ] word us audio image

Noun:

the momentary present
Adverb:

at the present moment
in these times
in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events
(prefatory or transitional) indicates a change of subject or activity
used to preface a command or reproof or request
without delay or hesitation; with no time intervening
in the immediate past

Word Origin

now: now: [OE] Now is the English member of a widespread family of words denoting ‘present time’ that are traceable back to Indo-European *nu- or *nū- (a relative of the ancestor of new). Others include Greek nun, Latin nunc, Sanskrit nū, Czech nyní, and, among the Germanic languages, German nun and Dutch, Swedish, and Danish nu. (French maintenant ‘now’, incidentally, originally meant literally ‘holding in the hand’, and developed its present sense via ‘at hand’ and ‘soon’.)

now (adv.): Old English nu "now, at present, immediately; now that," also used as an interjection and as an introductory word; common Germanic (Old Norse nu, Dutch nu, Old Frisian nu, German nun, Gothic nu "now"), from PIE *nu "now" (cognates: Sanskrit and Avestan nu, Old Persian nuram, Hittite nuwa, Greek nu, nun, Latin nunc, Old Church Slavonic nyne, Lithuanian nu, Old Irish nu-). Perhaps originally "newly, recently," and related to the root of new. Often merely emphatic; non-temporal usage (as in Now, then) was in Old English. The adjective meaning "up to date" first recorded 1967, but the word was used also as an adjective in Middle English with the sense "current" from late 14c. Now and then "occasionally" is from 1530s; now or never attested from 1550s.

adv.

adv.

adv.