yesteryear

See also: yester-year

English

Alternative forms

yester-year

Etymology

Compound of yester- +‎ year. Coined by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1869 in his translation "Ballad Of Dead Ladies", to translate Middle French antan (“last year”) (in Ballad 1 of François Villon's Testament).

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈjɛstəjɪə/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈjɛstərjɪər/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

yesteryear (countable and uncountable, plural yesteryears)

(poetic) Past years; time gone by; yore.
- 1928, Lawrence, D[avid] H[erbert], chapter 5, in Lady Chatterley's Lover:
  Where are the snows of yesteryear?
(rare) Last year.

Synonyms

(time gone by): foretime, yestertide; see also Thesaurus:the past

Translations

times gone by

Catalan: antany
Dutch: weleer (nl) n, voorbije (nl) n, verleden (nl) n
Finnish: menneet vuodet
French: jadis (fr), antan (fr)
German: einst (de)
Greek: κάποτε (el) n (kápote), παλιά (el) (paliá)
Ido: olim (io)
Italian: passato (it) m
Maori: raurangi
Portuguese outrora (pt)
Spanish: antaño (es)
Ukrainian: мину́вшина (uk) (mynúvšyna), мину́ле n (mynúle)
Vietnamese: xưa (vi), thời xưa (vi), ngày xưa (vi)
Welsh: llynedd f

last year — See also translations at last year

Armenian: հերու (hy) (heru)
Old Armenian: հերու (heru)
Basque: iaz (eu)
Bulgarian: лани (bg) (lani)
Catalan: antany m
Czech: loni (cs)
Danish: i fjor
Dutch: gisterjaar n
Faroese: í fjør
Finnish: mennyt vuosi
French: année passée, an passé, année dernière, an dernier
German: Vorjahr (de) n
Greek: πέρυσι (el) n (pérysi)
Ancient: πέρυσι (pérusi)
Hebrew: אשתקד‎ (he) (eshtakád)
Hungarian: tavaly (hu)
Icelandic: í fyrra
Irish: anuraidh
Italian: anno (it) scorso (it)
Japanese: 去年 (ja) (Kyonen)
Korean: 작년 (ko) (jangnyeon)
Latvian: pērn, pērngad
Low German:
German Low German: Vörjohr n
Maori: tauhouanga, tauhounga
Middle High German: vert
Norwegian: i fjor
Old Norse: fjǫrð
Old Swedish: fiordh
Persian: دیسال‎ (disâl)
Portuguese: ano passado m, antanho (pt) m
Russian: в прошлом году (v prošlom godu)
Sanskrit: परुत् (sa) (parut)
Serbo-Croatian: lani (sh), лани
Slovak: vlani
Slovene: láni (sl)
Spanish: antaño (es) m, año pasado m
Swedish: i fjol (sv), i fjor (sv)
Turkish: bıldır (tr)
Ukrainian: торі́к (uk) (torík), мину́лого ро́ку (mynúloho róku)
Welsh: llynedd f