yesterday (English)
Where does "yesterday" come from?
The word 'yesterday' traces back to the Proto-Indo-European term *dʰǵʰyésteros, which combined the word for 'yesterday' with a contrastive suffix. This evolved into the Proto-Germanic *gesteran before passing into Old English as ġiestrandæġ. By combining this ancient root with 'day' (dæġ), the word transitioned through Middle English to become the modern English term used to identify the day preceding today.
Full etymology tree
- yesterday (English), 'On the day before today.'
- inherited yesterday (Middle English), 'On the preceding day'
- inherited ġiestrandæġ (Old English), 'yesterday'
- compound ġeostran (Old English), 'alternative form of ġiestran'
- inherited *gesteran (Proto-West Germanic), 'yesterday'
- inherited *gesteraz (Proto-Germanic), 'yesterday'
- inherited *dʰǵʰyésteros (Proto-Indo-European), 'yesterday'
- derived *dʰǵʰyés (Proto-Indo-European), 'yesterday'
- inherited *dʰǵʰyésteros (Proto-Indo-European), 'yesterday'
- inherited *gesteraz (Proto-Germanic), 'yesterday'
- inherited *gesteran (Proto-West Germanic), 'yesterday'
- compound dæġ (Old English), 'day, (usually) as a period from sunrise to sunset and (scientifically) as a 24-hour period from sunrise to sunrise'
- inherited *dag (Proto-West Germanic), 'day'
- inherited *dagaz (Proto-Germanic), 'day (the period between sunrise and sunset)'
- derived *dʰeǵʰ- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *dagaz (Proto-Germanic), 'day (the period between sunrise and sunset)'
- inherited *dag (Proto-West Germanic), 'day'
- compound ġeostran (Old English), 'alternative form of ġiestran'
- inherited ġiestrandæġ (Old English), 'yesterday'
- inherited yesterday (Middle English), 'On the preceding day'
Direct ancestors
- yesterday (Middle English)
- giestrandæg (Old English)
- gårdag (Swedish)
- 𐌲𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍂𐌰𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌹𐍃 (Gothic)
- gisteren (Dutch)
- gestern (German)
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris