What does yest mean?
Yest is an archaic English noun meaning the day before today, equivalent to the modern word “yesterday.” It survives in elevated, poetic, historical, or deliberately archaic writing rather than everyday speech. The expression “of yest,” as in “the events of yest,” is characteristic of the word and can make a passage sound old-fashioned or formal. Yest also supplies the older element preserved in words such as “yesterday,” “yesternight,” and “yesteryear.” Its principal interest lies in its history: it comes from an Old English form that could denote the previous day by itself, before English developed the more transparent compound “yesterday.” Although dictionaries recognize plural forms such as “yests,” the word is normally used in the singular and is most often encountered in fixed or literary contexts. Modern speakers will generally understand it, but they will usually choose “yesterday” in ordinary conversation.
nounAn archaic term for the day immediately preceding today; yesterday.
- The day immediately preceding today; yesterday.
"The events of yest seemed less consequential by morning."
"Yest was cold and gray, and the river had begun to freeze."
"The account of yest made clear that the decision had been made hastily."
The plural is grammatically possible but uncommon because yest is normally used in the singular and in literary contexts.
"The play unfolds across two yests and a single night."
Yest is the old English core of yesterday: a tiny surviving word that once meant “the day before today” all by itself.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of yest
Yest descends through Middle English from Old English giest, an inherited Germanic word for the previous day. The same root survives in English “yesterday” and related forms such as “yestern” and “yesternight.” Comparable cognates appear in Dutch gisteren and German gestern, while the archaic English form gest preserves another survival of the same ancestral element.
Related word forms
How yest is actually used
Yest now has an archaic, poetic, or markedly literary register. It occurs in both British and American English but is not the ordinary modern word for yesterday. In phrases such as “of yest,” it sounds especially formal or archaic.
Easily confused with yest
Yest means the previous day in general, while yesternight refers specifically to the preceding night.
Yest is the modern surviving form of an Old English word for yesterday, whereas gest is an archaic spelling of yesterday.