yesteryear

C2+ Topic:Time

US /ˈjɛstɚˌjɪr/ UK /ˈjɛstəˌjɪə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a time in the recent past; former years

The faded photographs evoked the gentle glamour of yesteryear.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a time in the recent past;... past yorebygonesantiquity

Opposites

future tomorrow

Word family

Related forms yesterday year yore

Etymology

A compound of yester- ('last, previous') + year, coined by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1870 to translate French antan ('last year, days gone by').

ġeostran Old English ġēar Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Time Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# yesteryear

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈjɛstɚˌjɪr/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈjɛstəˌjɪə/

## Meanings
1. a time in the recent past; former years

## Examples
- The faded photographs evoked the gentle glamour of yesteryear.

## Synonyms
- past
- yore
- bygones
- antiquity

## Antonyms
- future
- tomorrow

## Related Forms
- yesterday
- year
- yore

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: ġeostran
- Root: ġēar

## Etymology
A compound of yester- ('last, previous') + year, coined by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1870 to translate French antan ('last year, days gone by').

## AI Etymology
yesteryear is a compound of yester- ('last, previous') + year, coined by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1870 to translate French antan ('last year, days gone by'). Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the noun sense is "a time in the recent past; former years", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as yesterday, year, yore, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old English ġeostran, Old English ġēar, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Time
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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