yesterday

English

Etymology

From Middle English yesterday, yisterday, ȝesterdai, ȝisterdai, from Old English ġiestrandæġ, ġister dæġ, ġestor dæġ, ġeostran dæġ, equivalent to yester- +‎ day; see there for more. Compare Scots yisterday, yesterday (“yesterday”), Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (gistradagis, “tomorrow”, adverb). Compare further Dutch gisteren, German gestern.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈjɛstədeɪ/, /ˈjɛstədɪ/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈjɛstɚdeɪ/, /ˈjɛstɚdi/
  • (dated, Southern US folk speech) IPA(key): /ˈjɪstɚdeɪ/, /ˈjɪstɚdi/[1]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (UK)(file)

Noun

yesterday (plural yesterdays)

  1. The day immediately before today; one day ago.
    Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow.
    Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow.
    • 1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish:
      Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …
  2. (figuratively) The past, often in terms of being outdated.
    yesterday's technology
    The worker of today is different from that of yesterday.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
      All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.
    • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
      Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

Usage notes
  • The plural yesterdays is unusual and often poetic for the recent past, e.g. “all our yesterdays have come back to haunt us”.
  • While pronunciations with /ˈjɪ-/ are now dialectal, they were formerly found in the standard language. For example, writer and orthoepist Thomas Sheridan prescribed such a pronunciation in his work.[2]

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

yesterday (not comparable)

  1. On the day before today.
    Synonym: (Ireland) the last day
    Antonym: tomorrow
    I started to watch the video yesterday, but could only finish it this evening.
  2. (informal) As soon as possible.
    I want this done yesterday!
Related terms

Translations

See also

References
  1. Hans Kurath and Raven Ioor McDavid (1961). The pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States: based upon the collections of the linguistic atlas of the Eastern United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 134–135.
  2. Thomas Sheridan (1790) A Complete Dictionary of the English Language, Both with Regard to Sound and Meaning‎, volume 2, C. Dilly

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English ġiestrandæġ; equivalent to yester- +‎ day.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈjɛstərdæi/, /ˈjistərdæi/, /ˈjustərdæi/

Adverb

yesterday

  1. On the preceding day
  2. At another preceding point in time; in the past

Noun

yesterday

  1. The preceding day; yesterday
  2. A preceding point in time; the past

Descendants
  • English: yesterday
  • Scots: ȝisterday, ȝesterday
  • Yola: yersthei, yerstei, yerstey

References
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