From Latin *agora*, itself a borrowing of Greek *ἀγορά* (agorá, "marketplace, public gathering place") — a space where things happened *in the present moment*. In Vulgar Latin the word shifted from a spatial sense to a temporal one, arriving in Portuguese with the meaning of "now."

In Brazilian Portuguese, *agora* can be softened to mean "in a little while" depending on tone and context — a reflection of the relaxed attitude toward time often associated with Brazilian culture. In European Portuguese it is used more strictly to mean the immediate present. The phrase *agora mesmo* ("right now, this very instant") sharpens the urgency considerably in both variants.