Jump To:

• yester
  yester

  adjective

  of or relating to yesterday.
• yester-
  yester-

  a combining form, now unproductive, occurring in words that denote an extent of time one period prior to the present period, the nature of the period being specified by the second element of the compound.

yester

¹ American  

[yes-ter] / ˈjɛs tər /

adjective

Archaic.

1. of or relating to yesterday.

---

yester- ² American  

1. a combining form, now unproductive, occurring in words that denote an extent of time one period prior to the present period, the nature of the period being specified by the second element of the compound.

   yesterweek.

---

yester- ¹ British  

prefix

1. indicating the day before today

   yesterday

2. indicating a period of time before the present one

   yesteryear

---

yester ² British  

/ ˈjɛstə /

adjective

1. Also: yestern.  archaic of or relating to yesterday

   yester sun

---

Usage

What does yester- mean? Yester- is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “prior” or "previous." It is very occasionally used in a variety of terms, many archaic, to describe time periods. Yester- comes from Old English geostran, roughly meaning “yesterday.”

Etymology

Origin of yester¹

1570–80; back formation from yesterday, etc.

Origin of yester-²

Middle English; Old English geostran, giestron; cognate with Dutch gisteren, German gestern; akin to Latin hesternus of yesterday

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yester yester-

What now is will then tomorrow as now was be past yester ...

From Time Magazine Archive

I sent it off myself by a lad named Elias Wellcome, who left Boston for this place yester morning.'

From Curious, if True Strange Tales by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Swiftly, silently, ran the little pearly drops, ashamed of having dimmed the lustre of those lovely eyes that only yester morning were so glad with smiles.

From Airy Fairy Lilian by Margaret Wolfe Hamilton (AKA Duchess)

Even our snows of yester year are roseate with the glow of imagination.

From The Justice of the King by Hamilton Drummond

This night might I have no reste for the words that thou saide yester even.

From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 16 by Various

I overheard a few comments as I walked to the bar, and realized that yester- day most of them had seen me wrapped in bandages, presumably with terrible wounds underneath.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

The necromancy of yester-         day foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypno-         tism of to-day.

From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy