源自中古英語 yesterday、yisterday、ȝesterdai、ȝisterdai,源自古英語 ġiestrandæġ、ġister dæġ、ġestor dæġ、ġeostran dæġ,等同於yester- + day。对比低地蘇格蘭語 yisterday、yesterday (“昨天”)、哥特語 𐌲𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (gistradagis, “明天”, 副詞)。也对比關係更遠的荷蘭語 gisteren、德語 gestern。
yesterday (複數 yesterdays)
- 昨天
Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow.- 今天是昨天的孩子、明天的家長。
Yesterday was rainy, but by this morning it had begun to snow.- 昨天下雨,但今早開始轉雪。
1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish:Yesterday, upon the stair / I met a man who wasn’t there / He wasn’t there again today / I wish, I wish he’d go away …- (請為本引文添加中文翻譯)
- (比喻義) 過去
- yesterday's technology ― 過去的技術
The worker of today is different from that of yesterday.- 如今的工人和過去的相比,已經大不相同。
c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, 出自 Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, 出版於 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.- (請為本引文添加中文翻譯)
2013年6月22日, “Snakes and ladders”, 出自 The Economist, 第 407 卷, 第 8841 期,第 76 頁:Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.- (請為本引文添加中文翻譯)