Our noun honor originates from the eleventh-century word onur, which originally meant “glory” or “fame”. This word, through Old French onor, can be traced back to Latin honos, which also referred to “position” and “reputation”. The initial letter h was often dropped due to pronunciation, but was later reattached in the fifteenth century when classical languages gained popularity. The Latin word honos has an uncertain origin, but is thought to have come from a Proto-Indo-European root similar to gon. It is worth noting that most non-American countries spell honor as honour, as early dictionaries by Noah Webster favored the shorter version while British lexicographer Samuel Johnson included the u in his dictionaries, leading to the adoption of different spellings in the US and UK, respectively.
