yesterday
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From Middle English, from Old English geostran dæg, equivalent to yester- + day; compounded from
- Old English geostran (“yesterday”), from Proto-Germanic *gestra-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰyes-;
- Old English dæg, from Proto-Germanic *dagaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʰ- (“to burn”)
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
yesterday (plural yesterdays)
- The day before today. 'Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow'. It can also understand as a day ago.
- Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow.
- The (recent) past, often disparaging.
- Yesterday's technology.
- All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. [Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5]
[edit] Usage notes
- The term yesterdays is unusual and often poetic for the recent past, e.g. "all our yesterdays have come back to haunt us."
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
day before today
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the recent past
[edit] Adverbyesterday
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Antonyms[edit] Related terms[edit] Translationson the day before today
[edit] See also |