yestern

Yestern is an old-fashioned English adjective meaning “of or relating to yesterday.” It is encountered especially in the established phrase “yestern day,” which can refer to the preceding day as a whole: “What happened on yestern day?” Outside that phrase, the word is uncommon in contemporary English, and modern speakers normally use “yesterday's” instead, as in “yesterday's news.” Although its basic meaning is simple, yestern has a conspicuously archaic tone that can lend gravity or historical distance to a sentence. In literary or deliberately traditional writing, it may evoke the vocabulary of older translations, sermons, chronicles, and formal records. The word is not restricted to one side of the Atlantic, though it appears more readily in solemn, literary, or nostalgic contexts than in everyday speech. Its survival in “yestern day” makes it especially recognizable even among readers who would not readily use it independently.

Of or relating to yesterday. The word is chiefly encountered in the fixed phrase “yestern day” and is not normally used as a modern substitute for “yesterday's.”

Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.

Where does yestern come from?

The word descends through Middle English yestern from Old English ġistran, an older form associated with the Germanic word for “yesterday.” It belongs to the same native Germanic word family as English yesterday and yester, and its close cognates include German gestern and Dutch gisteren. English yestern gradually became restricted and literary, while the fixed expression “yestern day” remained in wider use.

How yestern is actually used

Yestern is archaic or literary and is most familiar from the expression “yestern day.” It sounds deliberately old-fashioned and is unsuitable for ordinary modern prose unless that effect is intended.

Easily confused with yestern

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Words and phrases paired with yestern

What's the opposite of yestern?

Rhymes with yestern