In his book Write It Right, which was published in 1909 -– a hundred years ago — Ambrose Bierce disagreed with the usage of the words “Last” and “Past” with “week”. He explained :
Last and Past. “Last week.” “The past
week.” Neither is accurate: a week
cannot be the last if another is
already begun; and all weeks except
this one are past. Here two wrongs
seem to make a right: we can say the
week last past. But will we? I trow
not.
And H. W. Fowler agreed with those sentiments in his Fowler's Modern English Usage 1st Ed.
4. Last) (latest. In this now favourite antithesis (Dr Marshall's
latest, but we hope not his last,
contribution) we are reminded that
latest means last up to now only,
whereas last does not exclude the
future. The distinction is a
convenient one, & the use of latest
for last is described by the OED as '
now archaic & poetical'. But no
corresponding agreement has yet been
reached for abstaining from last when
latest would be the more precise word,
& many idioms militate against it
(last Tuesday; last year ; for the
last fortnight; on the last occasion ;
as I said in my last).
And his successor, R. W. Burchfield, also agreed, in New Folwer's Modern English Usage 3rd Ed.
4. Last/Latest. In such a
context as “In his latest book, Dr.
A…”, it is clear that Dr. A has
written earlier books and that he is
still alive and may well write others.
If the statement runs “In his last
book, Dr A…” the meaning could be the
same, or it could also imply that this
was the final book written by Dr A
before he died. It is obvious,
therefore, that if there is any danger
of contextual ambiguity some word
other than last should be used. In
many idiomatic phrases last is still
the only possible adj. of the two: =
most recent; next before a specified
time ( last Christmas; last week); =
preceding; previous in a series ( got
on at the last station); = only
remaining ( the last biscuit; our last
chance); ( preceded by the) = the
least likely or suitable ( the last
person I’d want to see; the last thing
I’d have expected; = the lowest in
order ( the last name on the list).
Nevertheless, the Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Ed described yester as:
yester-
in comb. or as prefix = immediately
preceding the present, last, in
yestereve, etc., after yesterday,
yesternight; e.g. yester-afternoon,
yester-age, yester-noon,
yester-tempest, yester-week. See also
yester-year.
Of course, I admit I've always thought that last week was the week before this.
So my question is: Do you think that use of the idiom last week has overpowered the correct usage "yester-week"?
Best Answer
Yes.
It’s very tempting to leave the answer at that, but… some more notes.
The most cursory look at any newspaper, or around the blogosphere, confirms this answer. ‘Last week’ is common as muck, while ‘yester-week’ is virtually non-existent, and when it does appear, it’s for archaic effect.
‘Last week’ isn’t in any way incorrect. It’s had the meaning ‘most recent, latest’ for over 600 years: in 1411, for instance, the rolls of Parliament under Henry IV refer to “The last parlement…” (OED.)
As your sources point out, however, ‘last’ can sometimes be ambiguous, and ‘latest’ is often a good alternative in those cases. Talking about ‘the latest week’ sounds odd and affected, just as it did when Fowler wrote; but talking about ‘Madonna’s latest single’ is perfectly fine.
‘Yester-’ isn’t actually as archaic as we tend to think! A few examples — ‘yesterday’, ‘yesternight’, ‘yester-eve’ — are old, but (according to the OED again) the general combining form (in eg ‘yester-week’) only really shows up in the 19th century. Amazingly, even good old ‘yester-year’ was apparently only coined in 1870, by Rosetti translating Villon: “Where are the snows of yester-year?”
Finally, none of the sources you give support your implication that ‘yester-week’ is the correct usage that should be preferred to ‘last week’! The Bierce and Fowler quotes point out the illogic and occasional ambiguity of ‘last’ (note that neither of these makes it grammatically wrong); Fowler’s suggests ‘latest’ as a sometimes better alternative, but neither even mentions ‘yester-’! The OED simply points out that ‘yester-’ exists (at least, existed for a few decades) and means roughly the same thing.