| 释义 |
yesterday, adv., n., and a.|ˈjɛstədeɪ, -dɪ|
Forms: α. 1 ᵹeostran-, ᵹystran-, ᵹioster-, ᵹestor dæᵹ, 3–6 ȝister- (3 yhistre-, 4 ȝester-, ȝistir(e-, ȝystir-, ȝystyre-, ȝhister-, yhister-, ȝhystir-, ȝuster-, 5 ȝistur-, ȝystyr-, ȝyster-, ȝustir-, 6 ȝeister-, yister-, -ir-, 9 dial. yisser-), 4– yesterday. β. 1 ᵹyrstan-, ᵹierstandæᵹ, 3 ȝersten-, ȝurster-, ȝursten-, ȝorsten-, ȝorstnen-, 4 ȝursday, 5 ȝurston-, yerstenday; 4 ȝistai, -av, 8 ye(r)stei. (Also 1–6 occas. as two words.)
[OE. ᵹeostran, ᵹystran dæᵹ, Lindisf. Gosp. ᵹioster doeᵹ, Rushw. Gosp. ᵹestor dæᵹe, also with metathesis (WS.) ᵹierstan, ᵹyrstan dæᵹ. The only known parallel to this collocation is Goth. gistradagis αὔριον, to-morrow; in OE., the simple ᵹiestron is found only once, but in the other languages the simple word is regularly used alone in the sense of ‘yesterday’: OFris. *iester, *iers(t)ne (NFris., WFris. jister, EFris. jursen, jersten), MLG. gisteren, -ern(e, (LG. gistern, güster(n), MDu. ghisteren, ghister (Du. gisteren, also dag van gister), OHG. gestaron, gest(e)ren (MHG. gestern, gester, G. gestern). The word has the form (with and without inflexional -n) of a comparative *ghistr-, ghjestr- (cf. L. hester-nus of yesterday) of an Indo-eur. *ghjes represented outside Teutonic by Skr. hyás, Gr. χθές, Alb. dje, L. heri yesterday (ON. í gǽr yesterday, tomorrow, shows a variant with long vowel).
The twofold meaning exhibited in the above forms and in OHG. ēgestern day before yesterday, day after tomorrow, indicates that the original application of the word was to a day preceding or following the present. The following apparent example of the English word with the meaning ‘tomorrow’ is isolated:—
1533More Apol. 201, I geue them all playn peremptory warnynge now, that they dreue yt of no lenger. For yf they tarye tyll yesterday..I purpose to purchace suche a proteccyon for them [etc.]. ]
A. adv.
1. On the day immediately preceding the present day. Also, in reported speech, on the day last past, the day before.
† ere yesterday: the day before yesterday.
αc950Lindisf. Gosp. John iv. 52 Heri, ᵹioster doeᵹ [Rushw. ᵹestor dæᵹe, Ags. Gosp. ᵹyrstan dæᵹ, Hatton ᵹystendaiᵹ]. c1250Gen. & Ex. 2732 We witen wel quat is bi-tid, Quuow ȝister-dai was slaȝen and hid. a1375Joseph Arim. 330 Þou toldest me ȝusterday. 1375Barbour Bruce i. 124 Wnfayr thingis may fall, perfay, Alss weill to-morn as ȝhisterday. c1380Sir Ferumb. 1632 Ȝester day,..as we ryde forþ ryȝtes, Wiþ seuen glotouns mette we. c1450Northern Passion 160/404 Ȝistirday were þay redis thre, Now are thay closed in to a tre. c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. lv. 131 As it was ȝisterday and þe oþir day. 1535Coverdale Gen. xxxi. 2 Iacob behelde Labans countenaunce, & beholde, it was not towarde him as yesterdaye and yer⁓yesterdaye. a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) II. 76 Mr George ansuerit and said,..wald they send to him the honest and godlie man that maid the sermone ȝeisterday, he wald oppin his mynd into him. 1585Whitney Choice Emblems (1586) Ep. Ded. 1 For hereby, this present time behouldeth the accidentes of former times, as if they had bin done but yesterdaie. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. iii. ii. 123 But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might Haue stood against the World: Now lies he there, And none so poore to do him reuerence. 1675Ld. Conway in Essex Papers (Camden 1013) 11 The Debate there was yesterday and to day in the House of Commons. 1814Jane Austen Mansf. Park xl, He was well, had left them all well at Mapsfield, and was to dine, as yesterday, with the Frasers. 1842Tennyson Gardener's Dau. 81 As tho' 'twere yesterday, as tho' it were The hour just flown. 1849M. Arnold Forsaken Merman 30 Children dear, was it yesterday We heard the sweet bells over the bay? 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxvii. 212 All evidence of the deep track which they had formed yesterday having been swept away.
βc1000ælfric Gen. xxxi. 5 Ic ᵹeseo on eowres fæder þeawum, þæt he nys swa wel wið me ᵹeworht, swa he wæs ᵹyrstan dæᵹ and þis æran dæᵹ. c1000― Saints' Lives xxiii. 468 And biᵹe us swa ðeah rumlicor to-dæᵹ be hlafe þonne ðu ᵹebohtest ᵹyrstan dæᵹ. c1050Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 418/9 Horno [sic], ᵹierstandæᵹe. c1205Lay. 17063 Ȝurstendæi [c 1275 ȝorstendai] ær none Ich wuste þat ȝe comen. c1290St. Dominic 198 in S. Eng. Leg. 283 Þes frere cam ȝursterday to toune. 1455Paston Lett. (1897) I. 326 Yerstenday we wrote our lettres of our entent to..the Archebysshop of Caunterburye. 1788Voc. Forth & Bargie in Trans. R. Irish Acad. II. 34 Yerstei, yesterday; ear yestei, the day before yesterday.
2. transf. A short time ago; only lately; the other day; now esp. in prov. phr. I was not born yesterday, etc.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 15 Anoþer seide, ‘Ȝister⁓day [MS. γ ȝurstonday] he hadde þe peple at his hestes, and now þe peple haþ hym at here heste.’ a1400–50Wars Alex. 3304 (Ashm. MS.), I, þat was ȝustirday so ȝape & ȝemed all þe werld, To day am dreuyn all to dust. 1509Barclay Shyp of Folys 153 b, From the kechyn to the quere and so to a state One yester day a courter is nowe a prest become. 1718Prior Solomon iii. 116 Naked from the Womb We yesterday came forth; that in the Tomb Naked again We must Tomorrow lye. 1757R. Demere Let. 10 Aug. in W. L. McDowell Docs. relating to Indian Affairs (1970) II. 398, I was not born Yesterday. 1837Marryat Snarleyyow xii. 62, I was not born yesterday, as the saying is. 1856N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 264 Edinburgh..outstripped in population daily by towns that yesterday were hamlets. 1860G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. xii, It is needless for me to observe that Mr. Sawyer was one of those individuals who are described in common parlance as not having been ‘born yesterday’. 1895J. C. Snaith Mistr. Dor. Marvin xlviii, ‘I wasn't born yesterday’, he returned sweetly; ‘methinks I am rather old in the tooth.’
3. fig. Used to suggest extreme urgency or impatience, esp. in phr. to want (or need) something yesterday. colloq.
1974Times 7 Feb. 14/7 Attacks by Miss Brigid Brophy and her group, whose case was, roughly, that they wanted everything, and wanted it yesterday. 1978D. A. Stanwood Memory of Eva Ryker xxi. 196, I need the information yesterday. 1980T. Barling Goodbye Piccadilly xv. 309 Don't ask me... Just get us down there yesterday.
B. n.
1. The day next before the present; also pl. past days (often in echoes of quot. 1605).
c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) lxxxix. [xc.] 4 Þusend wintra bið þon anlicast, swa ᵹeostran dæᵹ ᵹegan wære [a 1300 E.E. Ps. Als yhistre-dai þat forth-yhed here]. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 463 He..sone ȝederly for-ȝete ȝister-day steuen. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 145 Who þat foloweþ þe Medes, he schal haue þe trauaille of ȝister day [MS. γ ȝursday]. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. ii. 252 My yesterdayes araye was to please my housbande. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 74 Well well (quoth she) what euer ye now saie, It is to late to call again yesterdaie. 1605Shakes. Macb. v. v. 22 And all our yesterdayes, haue lighted Fooles The way to dusty death. 1627Donne Serm., John xiv. 26 (1640) 285 Not for your yester-dayes, not for your yester-nights sins. 1779Farr in Earl Malmesbury's Lett. (1870) I. 425 The wind blowing very hard at east all that day, and still more so in the night and on yesterday. 1809Byron in Dallas Corr. of B. (1825) I. 39 Did you receive my yesterday's note? 1814Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xxiii, More of the youth I cannot say, Our captive but since yesterday. 1827Southey Hist. Penins. War xviii. II. 144 The Junta, he said, had commenced their sittings on the yesterday. 1841Dickens Barn. Rudge lxxv, The same..gentleman he had seen yesterday, and many yesterdays before. 1899Fairbairn Catholicism i. §5. 34 They tried to enrich the church of to-day with the wealth of all her yesterdays.
2. transf. Time not long past.
1382Wyclif Job viii. 9 (MS. Douce 369), Wee ben as ȝistai born, and wee han vnkunnyng. ― Isa. xxx. 33 Greiþid is forsoþe fro ȝistai tofeth. 1399Langl. Rich. Redeles iii. 261 It ffallith as well to ffodis of xxiiij ȝeris, Or yonge men of yistirday to ȝeue good redis, As be cometh a kow to hoppe in a cage! 1555Philpot in Foxe A. & M. (1570) 2012/2 We are but yesterdayes children,..& our dayes are lyke a shadow. 1570Ibid. (ed. 2) 125/1 Thy crucified Christe is but an yesterdayes God, the gods of y⊇ Gentiles are of most antiquitie. 1653Ashwell Fides Apost. 85 Praxeas a fellow of yesterday. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. 187 By a revolution in the state, the fawning sycophant of yesterday, is converted into the austere critic of the present hour. 1865Kingsley Herew. xli, Their skin-deep yesterday's civilisation. 1876J. Parker Paracl. ii. xviii. 311 As compared with Christian Theology, science as it is now urged upon us is but of yesterday. 1897Kipling Recessional 15 Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
3. a. attrib. with times of the day: yesterday afternoon, yesterday evening, yesterday morning, yesterday night, yesterday noon. The combination is used both as n. and as adv. Cf. yester-.
1654–5Clarke Papers (Camden) III. 26 Yesterday night came letters from Collonell Hacker. 1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4892/2 The Bridge was finished Yesterday-Morning. 1782F. Burney Cecilia i. vi, She enquired how long he had left Suffolk? ‘But yesterday noon, ma'am’, he answered. 1837Dickens Pickw. xi, Yesterday morning, when a letter was received from Mr. Wardle.
b. In the possessive, as yesterday's man, a man, esp. a politician, whose career is finished or past its peak.
1966‘G. Black’ You want to die, Johnny? ii. 27 John saw himself as one of yesterday's men, a survivor. 1972Guardian 14 Jan. 13/8 Support for Nkrumuh still remains limited to his fellow tribesmen in the remote South-west and to those who fell off the high-living Fascist bandwagon when he was overthrown. These people are ‘yesterday's men’ in the eyes of most Ghanaians. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVII. 349/2 The politicians..do not know if they will walk out as ministers..or as yesterday's men.
C. as adj. Belonging to yesterday or the immediate past; very recent. Now rare or Obs.
1553Becon Reliques of Rome (1563) 78 b, A late and an yesterday byrde, hatched and brought forthe of many Popes. 1646R. Baillie Anabaptism (1647) 163 An yesterday conceit of the English Anabaptists. 1657J. Watts Scribe, Pharisee, etc. iii. 51 You may ere long, lay down your Novelties, and the yesterday fashions of your new Brotherhood. 1665J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 41 His Judgment dictated, that Yesterday Writers are most proper for Matters of Antiquity. 1690C. Nesse O. & N. Test. I. 189 The covenant of reconciliation..was but a yesterday covenant..in comparison of this covenant of redemption..which was from eternity.
Hence ˈyesterdayness (nonce-wd.), the distinctive quality of being yesterday or of belonging to the recent past.
1897Bookman Nov. 235 Yesterday, as such and in its essential yesterdayness, has no objective existence. 1909Times Lit. Suppl. 3 June 202/2 That disquieting sense of ‘yesterdayness’ that attaches to most collections of essays..that have already severally seen the light.
▸ yesterday's news n. a person or thing that is no longer fashionable, relevant, or important (cf. old news n. at old adj. Special uses 4).
1962in M. L. Mace & G. G. Montgomery Managem. Probl. Of Corporate Acquisitions viii. 203 He doesn't tell you that the purple dress is *yesterday's news and not worth $2.00 now. 1994‘C. Victor’ Only You (1995) xvii. 215 She'd been in constant fear of sliding from her perch near the top, always wondering..if she'd suddenly be yesterday's news. 1998Cycling Today May 35/4 But it's also because the MTB market is where it's at and road bikes have been ‘yesterday's news’ for so long. |