ahorita

What it means

1. 1.

   In a moment; shortly; at some unspecified point that may never arrive. Despite the diminutive suffix promising immediacy, ahorita is famously elastic — it can mean five minutes, five hours, or never.

2. 2.

   Just now, a moment ago. The same word also looks backwards: ahorita salió, 'he just left'.

Literally: Right now (diminutive of ahora).

Examples with translations

• —¿Me ayudas? —Ahorita voy.

  'Can you help me?' 'I'll be right there.'

  Note: Whether this means thirty seconds or forty minutes is genuinely unknowable.

• Ahorita no, gracias.

  Not right now, thanks.

  Note: As a refusal this is polite and final, not a deferral.

• Ahorita acaba de salir.

  He left just a moment ago.

  Note: The backward-looking sense.

Where it comes from

The -ita diminutive normally intensifies immediacy in Spanish. In Mexico it has drifted so far in practice that the intensifier ahoritita exists to mean what ahorita used to. The gap between the word's form and its use is a standing joke among Mexicans themselves.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

ahoritita, orita