Single-word Requests – Succinct Expression for ‘The Day Before Yesterday’

expressionssingle-word-requests

Is there a more succinct expression for "the day before yesterday"?

In German for example, gestern = 'yesterday.' The prefix vor roughly means before, so logically, vorgestern means 'the day before yesterday.'

Similarly, morgen = 'tomorrow', the prefix über roughly means over, so again, übermorgen means 'the day after tomorrow.'

(In Mandarin Chinese also you have respectively 前天 & 後天.)

Presumably, there are also similarly logical ways to say "the page after the next" or "the paragraph before the last", etc.

Are there no similarly succinct, and graceful, expressions in English?

Best Answer

The words you are looking for exist in English, but they have been abandoned and are only found in old texts.

1535, Coverdale, Bible, Genesis 31:2
And Iacob behelde Labans countenaunce,   And Jacob beheld Laban’s countenance,
& beholde, it was not towarde him as     and behold, it was not toward him as
yesterday and ereyesterday.              yesterday and ereyesterday.¹

1535, Myles Coverdale, The Byble, that is, the Holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Teſtament, faythfully tranſlated into Englyſhe, Tobit 8:4, page D.iiij
Thē ſpake Tobias unto the virgin, and    Then spake Tobias unto the virgin, and
ſayde: Up Sara, let us make oure         said: Up Sarah, let us make our
prayer unto God to daye, tomorow, and    prayer unto God today, tomorrow, and
ouermorow: for theſe thre nightes wil    overmorrow: for these three nights will
we reconcyle oure ſelues with God: and   we reconcile ourselves with God: and
whan the thirde holy night is paſt, we   when the third holy night is past, we
ſhall ioyne together in ye deutye of     shall join together in the duty of
mariage.                                 marriage.²

Note how closely these words are related to the German you ask about, because these languages have a common ancestor. Consider these sister terms:

  • over- and über- “from Proto-Germanic *uberi”³
  • yester- and gestern “from Proto-Germanic *gestra-”⁴
  • morrow⁵ and morgen “from Proto-Germanic *murgana- ‘morning’”⁶
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