今年

The word '今年' (kotoshi) is a compound of '今' (ko, a form of 'いま' ima meaning 'now') and '年' (toshi meaning 'year'). The 'ko' prefix is an ancient Japanese word component indicating 'this' or 'current', and can be seen in other words like '今日' (kyō, 'today', originally 'ko-hi') and '今晩' (konban, 'tonight', originally 'ko-ban'). Therefore, '今年' literally means 'this year'. This pattern of combining an indicator of 'this' with a unit of time is common in Japanese. The pronunciation shift from 'ko-toshi' to 'kotoshi' is a natural phonetic development over time, often involving assimilation of sounds. While the second definition 'last year' is considered archaic, its existence suggests a historical usage where '今' could sometimes refer to a recently past or immediately present timeframe depending on context, though this specific usage with '年' is not standard in modern Japanese.