adv. and sb. Chiefly Sc. and poet. Forms: α. 4 ȝhistrewyn, ȝystrewine, 5 yistrevyn, ȝistreuen. β. 6 ȝestrene, ȝistrene, yestrene, yeistrein, 8– yestreen. γ. corruptly. 6 the strene, 8 the straine, 9 the streen, the-streen. [MSc. ȝystrewin = ȝystir (see YESTERDAY) + ewin EVEN sb., in the 16th c. contracted to ȝistrene, later yestreen (18th cent.), in which form it was taken up by English writers.] A. adv. On the evening of yesterday; yesterday evening.
α. c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxiii. (vii Sleepers), 229. Ȝystrewine wele lat.
a. 1400. Northern Passion, 1489. Ȝhistrewyn when þe day was gane.
c. 1440. Alphabet of Tales, 245. Yone gude liberall monke, your hostley, servid me yistrevyn at my supper wurthelie.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 7426. Ȝistreuen he was in his awen steed.
β. 1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. xi. 72. In my sleip ȝestrene.
1583. in 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., 422/2. Twa missives, the ane … quhilk he ressauit yeistrein.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Sonn., xli. 1. So suete a kis ȝistrene fra thee I reft.
1721. Ramsay, Bessy Bell & Mary Gray, i. Bessy Bell I loo’d yestreen.
1785. Burns, Halloween, xv. I mind’t as weel’s yestreen.
1821. Scott, Pirate, vii. I did feel a rheumatize in my backspauld yestreen.
1837. Lowell, Lett. to G. B. Loring, 23 Aug. An’ ’twas but late yestreen I met her And—ah! those een!
1894. Crockett, Raiders, iii. He was tired yestreen, and he’s the better o’ a rest this morning.
γ. 1587. W. Fowler, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 129/88. That which long tyme past before or present is in sight, which was the strene, or yit tomorrow.
1711. Sir Eger, Sir Grahame, & Sir Gray-Steel, 1753. The streen to chamber I him led.
1790. Morison, Poems, 134. The merligoes are yet before your e’en And paint to you the sight ye’ve seen the streen.
a. 800[?]. Fair Ellen, xxiv., in Child, Ballads (1894), V. 221/2. I dreamed a dream san the straine.
1873. [P. Buchan], Leg. North, 29. Quo he, ‘Guidwife! I had a thocht thestreen.’
B. sb. The evening of yesterday.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xi. When the sea was working like barm wi’ yestreen’s wind.
1861. J. R. Green, Lett. (1901), II. 75. I spent yestreen at the Crystal Palace.
