different between yestern vs yesterday

English

Etymology

Perhaps from yester +? -en. Compare also Old English ?iestran (“yesterday”).

Adjective

yestern (not comparable)

1. (archaic, rare) Of or pertaining to yesterday.
   • 1868, John Conington (translator), The Iliad of Homer

     Argos, I fear, will pay us soon again
     Her yestern debt […]

Adverb

yestern (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Yesterday.

Noun

yestern (plural yesterns)

1. (archaic) Yesterday.

Translations

Anagrams

• sentery, styrene

English

Etymology

From Middle English yesterday, yisterday, ?esterdai, ?isterdai, from Old English ?iestrandæ?, ?ister dæ?, ?estor dæ?, ?eostran dæ?, equivalent to yester- +? day; see there for more. Compare Scots yisterday, yesterday (“yesterday”), Gothic ???????????????????????????????????????????? (gistradagis, “tomorrow”, adverb). Compare further Dutch gisteren, German gestern.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?j?st?de?/, /?j?st?d?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?j?st?de?/, /?j?st?di/
• (dated, Southern US folk speech) IPA^(key): /?j?st?de?/, /?j?st?di/

Noun

yesterday (plural yesterdays)

1. The day immediately before today; one day ago.
2. (figuratively) The past, often in terms of being outdated.
   • 1606 William Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.5

     All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

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 /?j?-/ 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.

Derived terms

• born yesterday
• yesterday is gone

Translations

Adverb

yesterday (not comparable)

1. On the day before today.

   Synonym: (Ireland) the last day

   Antonym: tomorrow

2. (informal) As soon as possible.

Related terms

Translations

See also

• hesternal
• today
• tomorrow night
• tonight
• last night
• nudiustertian

References

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ?usterday, ?urstendæi, ?isterday, yisterday, ?esterdai, yusterday

Etymology

From Old English ?iestrandæ?; equivalent to yester- +? day.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?j?st?rd?i/, /?jist?rd?i/, /?just?rd?i/

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
• Yola: yerstey

References

• “yester-dai, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-20.