yesteryear

American  

[yes-ter-yeer, -yeer] / ˈjɛs tərˈjɪər, -ˌjɪər /

noun

1. last year.

2. the recent years; time not long past.

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adverb

1. during time not long past.

yesteryear British  

/ ˈjɛstəˌjɪə /

noun

1. last year or the past in general

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adverb

1. during last year or the past in general

Etymology

Origin of yesteryear

yester- + year; apparently introduced by D.G. Rossetti (1870) to render Middle French antan (Villon)

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Explanation

Yesteryear is an extremely poetic way to refer to the past. You might nostalgically talk about the town where you used to live as your home of yesteryear. The word yesteryear was actually invented by a poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in 1870. Rossetti was searching for an accurate way to translate a phrase by the French poet Francois Villon — the line he came up with was "But where are the snows of yesteryear?" Other translators have substituted yore for yesteryear, but the latter is a word that perfectly captures a kind of nostalgia for a lost past.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yesteryear

For some, mRNA seemed like the biotech investment play of yesteryear, but on the heels of Moderna and Merck’s new mRNA cancer treatment, investors are rushing back in.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

I thought, ‘Let’s not forget the great film actors of yesteryear and that style that they had.’

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026

Before then, it had tended to grow in recent years, although not as quickly or dramatically as it did in the dot-com bubble of yesteryear.

From Barron's ● Mar. 27, 2026

Like the Sirkian melodramas of yesteryear, we go see movies like “Reminders of Him” because they’re highly entertaining — and, more often than not, decently made.

From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2026

Networking, one of my mother’s old phrases, musty- slang of yesteryear.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

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