Yesterday

adv., sb. and a. Forms: α. 1 ʓeostran-, ʓystran-, ʓioster-, ʓestor dæʓ, 3–6 ȝister- (3 yhistre-, 4 ȝester-, ȝistir(e-, ȝystir-, ȝystyre-, ȝhister-, yhister-, ȝhystir-, ȝuster-, 5 ȝistur-, ȝystyr-, ȝyster-, ȝustir-, 6 ȝeister-, yister-, -ir-, 9 dial. yisser-), 4– yesterday. β. 1 ʓyrstan-, ʓierstandæʓ, 3 ȝersten-, ȝurster-, ȝursten-, ȝorsten-, ȝorstnen-, 4 ȝursday, 5 ȝurston-, yerstenday; 4 ȝistai, -ay, 8 ye(r)stei. (Also 1–6 occas. as two words.) [OE. ʓeostran, ʓystran dæʓ, Lindisf. Gosp. ʓioster doeʓ, Rushw. Gosp. ʓestor dæʓe, also with metathesis (WS.) ʓierstan, ʓyrstan dæʓ. The only known parallel to this collocation is Goth. gistradagis αὔριον, to-morrow; in OE., the simple ʓiestron is found only once, but in the other languages the simple word is regularly used alone in the sense of ‘yesterday’: OFris. *iester, *iers(t)ne (NFris., WFris. jister, EFris. jursen, jersten), MLG. gisteren, -ern(e, (LG. gistern, güster(n), MDu. ghisteren, ghister (Du. gisteren, also dag van gister), OHG. gestaron, gest(e)ren (MHG. gestern, gester, G. gestern). The word has the form (with and without inflexional -n) of a comparative *ghistr-, ghjestr- (cf. L. hester-nus of yesterday) of an Indo-eur. *ghjes represented outside Teutonic by Skr. hyás, Gr. χθές, Alb. dje, L. heri yesterday (ON. í gǽr yesterday, to-morrow, shows a variant with long vowel).

  The twofold meaning exhibited in the above forms and in OHG. ēgestern day before yesterday, day after to-morrow, indicates that the original application of the word was to a day preceding or following the present. The following apparent example of the English word with the meaning ‘to-morrow’ is isolated:—

1533.  More, Apol., 201. I geue them all playn peremptory warnynge now, that they dreue yt of no lenger. For yf they tarye tyll yesterday … I purpose to purchace suche a proteccyon for them [etc.].]

  A.  adv. 1. On the day immediately preceding the present day. Also, in reported speech, on the day last past, the day before.

  † Ere yesterday: the day before yesterday.

  α.  c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., John iv. 52. Heri, ʓioster doeʓ [Rushw. ʓestor dæʓe, Ags. Gosp. ʓyrstan dæʓ, Hatton ʓystendaiʓ].

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2732. We witen wel quat is bi-tid, Quuow ȝister-dai was slaȝen and hid.

a. 1375.  Joseph Arim., 330. Þou toldest me ȝusterday.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 124. Wnfayr thingis may fall, perfay, Alss weill to-morn as ȝhisterday.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 1632. Ȝester day,… as we ryde forþ ryȝtes, Wiþ seuen glotouns mette we.

c. 1450.  Northern Passion, 160/404. Ȝistirday were þay redis thre, Now are thay closed in to a tre.

c. 1450.  trans. De Imitatione, III. lv. 131. As it was ȝisterday and þe oþir day.

1535.  Coverdale, Gen. xxxi. 2. Iacob behelde Labans countenaunce, & beholde, it was not towarde him as yesterdaye and yer-yesterdaye.

a. 1578.  Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 76. Mr George ansuerit and said,… wald they send to him the honest and godlie man that maid the sermone ȝeisterday, he wald oppin his mynd into him.

1585.  Whitney, Choice Emblems (1586), Ep. Ded. 1. For hereby, this present time behouldeth the accidentes of former times, as if they had bin done but yesterdaie.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., III. ii. 123. But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might Haue stood against the World: Now lies he there, And none so poore to do him reuerence.

1675.  Ld. Conway, in Essex Papers (Camden, 1913), 11. The Debate there was yesterday and to day in the House of Commons.

1814.  Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, xl. He was well, had left them all well at Mansfield, and was to dine, as yesterday, with the Frasers.

1842.  Tennyson, Gard. Dau., 81. As tho’ ’twere yesterday, as tho’ it were The hour just flown.

1849.  M. Arnold, Forsaken Merman, 30. Children dear, was it yesterday We heard the sweet bells over the bay?

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvii. 212. All evidence of the deep track which they had formed yesterday having been swept away.

  β.  c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gen. xxxi. 5. Ic ʓeseo on eowres fæder þeawum, þæt he nys swa wel wið me ʓeworht, swa he wæs ʓyrstan dæʓ and þis æran dæʓ. Ibid. (c. 1000), Saints’ Lives, xxiii. 468. And biʓe us swa ðeah rumlicor to-dæʓ be hlafe þonne ðu ʓebohtest ʓyrstan dæʓ.

c. 1050.  Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 418/9. Horno [sic], ʓierstandæʓe.

c. 1205.  Lay., 17063. Ȝurstendæi [c. 1275 ȝorstendai] ær none Ich wuste þat ȝe comen.

c. 1290.  St. Dominic, 198, in S. Eng. Leg., 283. Þes frere cam ȝursterday to toune.

1455.  Paston Lett. (1897), I. 326. Yerstenday we wrote our lettres of our entent to … the Archebysshop of Caunterburye.

1788.  Voc. Forth & Bargie, in Trans. R. Irish Acad., II. 34. Yerstei, yesterday; ear yestei, the day before yesterday.

  2.  transf. A short time ago; only lately; the other day; now esp. in prov. phr. I was not born yesterday, etc.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), IV. 15. Anoþer seide, ‘Ȝisterday [MS. γ ȝurstonday] he hadde þe peple at his hestes, and now þe peple haþ hym at here heste.’

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 3304 (Ashm. MS.). I, þat was ȝustirday so ȝape & ȝemed all þe werld, To day am dreuyn all to dust.

1509.  Barclay, Shyp of Folys, 153 b. From the kechyn to the quere and so to a state One yester day a courter is nowe a prest become.

1718.  Prior, Solomon, III. 116. Naked from the Womb We yesterday came forth; that in the Tomb Naked again We must To-morrow lye.

1856.  N. Brit. R., XXVI. 264. Edinburgh … outstripped in population daily by towns that yesterday were hamlets.

1860.  Whyte-Melville, Mkt. Harb., xii. It is needless for me to observe that Mr. Sawyer was one of those individuals who are described in common parlance as not having been ‘born yesterday.’

1895.  Snaith, Mistr. Dor. Marvin, xlviii. ‘I wasn’t born yesterday,’ he returned sweetly; ‘methinks I am rather old in the tooth.’

  B.  sb. 1. The day next before the present; also pl. past days (often in echoes of quot. 1605).

c. 1000.  Ags. Ps. (Th.) lxxxix. [xc.] 4. Þusend wintra bið þon anlicast, swa ʓeostran dæʓ ʓegan wære [a. 1300 E. E. Ps. Als yhistre-dai þat forth-yhed here].

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 463. He … sone ȝederly for-ȝete ȝister-day steuen.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 145. Who þat foloweþ þe Medes, he schal haue þe trauaille of ȝister day [MS. γ ȝursday].

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., II. 252. My yesterdayes araye was to please my housbande.

1562.  J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 74. Well well (quoth she) what euer ye now saie, It is to late to call again yesterdaie.

1605.  Shaks., Macb. V. v. 22. And all our yesterdayes, haue lighted Fooles The way to dusty death.

1627.  Donne, Serm. John xiv. 26 (1640), 285. Not for your yester-dayes, not for your yester-nights sins.

1779.  Farr, in Earl Malmesbury’s Lett. (1870), I. 425. The wind blowing very hard at east all that day, and still more so in the night and on yesterday.

1809.  Byron, in Dallas, Corr. of B. (1825), I. 39. Did you receive my yesterday’s note?

1814.  Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. xxiii. More of the youth I cannot say, Our captive but since yesterday.

1827.  Southey, Hist. Penins. War, xviii. II. 144. The Junta, he said, had commenced their sittings on the yesterday.

1841.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lxxv. The same … gentleman he had seen yesterday, and many yesterdays before.

1899.  Fairbairn, Catholicism, I. § 5. 34. They tried to enrich the church of to-day with the wealth of all her yesterdays.

  2.  transf. Time not long past.

1382.  Wyclif, Job viii. 9 (MS. Douce 369). Wee ben as ȝistai born, and wee han vnkunnyng. Ibid., Isa. xxx. 33. Greiþid is forsoþe fro ȝistai tofeth.

1399.  Langl., Rich. Redeles, III. 261. It ffallith as well to ffodis of xxiiij ȝeris, Or yonge men of yistirday to ȝeue good redis, As be-cometh a kow to hoppe in a cage!

1555.  Philpot, in Foxe, A. & M. (1570), 2012/2. We are but yesterdayes children,… & our dayes are lyke a shadow. Ibid. (1570, ed. 2), 125/1. Thy crucified Christe is but an yesterdayes God, the gods of y^e Gentiles are of most antiquitie.

1653.  Ashwell, Fides Apost., 85. Praxeas a fellow of yesterday.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., 187. By a revolution in the state, the fawning sycophant of yesterday, is converted into the austere critic of the present hour.

1865.  Kingsley, Herew., xli. Their skin-deep yesterday’s civilisation.

1876.  J. Parker, Paracl., II. xviii. 311. As compared with Christian Theology, science as it is now urged upon us is but of yesterday.

1897.  Kipling, Recessional, 13.

  3.  attrib. with times of the day: yesterday afternoon, evening, morning, night, noon. The combination is used both as sb. and as adv. Cf. YESTER-.

1654–5.  Clarke Papers (Camden), III. 26. Yesterday night came letters from Collonell Hacker.

1711.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4892/2. The Bridge was finished Yesterday-Morning.

1782.  Miss Burney, Cecilia, I. vi. She enquired how long he had left Suffolk? ‘But yesterday noon, ma’am,’ he answered.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xi. Yesterday morning, when a letter was received from Mr. Wardle.

  C.  as adj. Belonging to yesterday or the immediate past; very recent. Now rare or Obs.

1553.  Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 78 b. A late and an yesterday byrde, hatched and brought forthe of many Popes.

1646.  R. Baillie, Anabaptism (1647), 163. An yesterday conceit of the English Anabaptists.

1657.  J. Watts, Scribe, Pharisee, etc., III. 51. You may ere long, lay down your Novelties, and the yesterday fashions of your new Brotherhood.

1665.  J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 41. His Judgment dictated, that Yesterday Writers are most proper for Matters of Antiquity.

1690.  C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 189. The covenant of reconciliation … was but a yesterday covenant … in comparison of this covenant of redemption … which was from eternity.

  Hence Yesterdayness (nonce-wd.), the distinctive quality of being yesterday or of belonging to the recent past.

1884.  Life, IV. 9 Oct., 206/2. Until we can go to bed to-morrow night feeling that the now is the day-before-yesterdayness of the is, we cannot get the horizontal.

1897.  Bookman, Nov., 235. Yesterday, as such and in its essential yesterdayness, has no objective existence.

1909.  Times Lit. Suppl., 3 June, 202/2. That disquieting sense of ‘yesterdayness’ that attaches to most collections of essays … that have already severally seen the light.

1924.  Saintsbury, A Last Scrap Book, v. 52. For depreciation of Victorian poetry is more and more becoming a note, not of modernity or hodiernity, but of yesterdayness—the most terrible of all things to the really modern mind!