yestreen

English

Alternative forms

• yestereen
• yestere'en

Etymology

From Middle English yestreen, alteration of yestereven (“last night, yesterday evening”), from Old English ġiestranǣfen (“yesterday evening”), equivalent to yester- +‎ e'en (“evening”). Cognate with West Frisian justerjûn (“yestreen; last night”).

Noun

yestreen (plural yestreens)

1. (chiefly archaic, poetic or Scotland) The night before; last night.
   • "Sir Patrick Spens," traditional Scottish ballad:

     Late yestreen I saw the new moon, the old moon in her arms

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Rob Roy. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 95:

     It was the creature Dougal that extricated me, as he did yestreen […]

   • 1916 September 16 – November 11, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter IV, in Piccadilly Jim, 1st British edition, London: Herbert Jenkins […], published May 1918, →OCLC, page 70:

     Well, it's a funny thing, but I can't get rid of the impression that at some point in my researches into the night life of London yestreen I fell upon some person to whom I had never been introduced and committed mayhem upon his person.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     You have not forgotten our telephone conversation of yestreen, Jeeves?

Synonyms

• see list in yestereve

Translations

night before — see last night

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English yestereven (“yesterday evening”).

Noun

yestreen (plural yestreens)

1. yesterday evening, the night before

Adverb

yestreen (not comparable)

1. last night, yesterday