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prettygoodwordyestreen (ye-STREEN) - n/adv., (arch/Scots) yesterday evening.
I know it from ballads and Burns -- as the seaman says to Sir Patrick Spens, "I saw the new moon late yestreen / With the old moon in her arm". This is very old -- it's an alteration of yestereven, same meanings, from Old English ġiestranǣfen, still same meanings, but more readily analyzed as Middle English yester-, prior (day) (ultimately from PIE *dʰǵʰyés, yesterday, compare German gestern, yesterday) + e'en, contraction of even (shortening of evening compare the ending of Hallowe'en).
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
I know it from ballads and Burns -- as the seaman says to Sir Patrick Spens, "I saw the new moon late yestreen / With the old moon in her arm". This is very old -- it's an alteration of yestereven, same meanings, from Old English ġiestranǣfen, still same meanings, but more readily analyzed as Middle English yester-, prior (day) (ultimately from PIE *dʰǵʰyés, yesterday, compare German gestern, yesterday) + e'en, contraction of even (shortening of evening compare the ending of Hallowe'en).
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
