yestreen, adv. and n. Chiefly Sc. and poet.
(jɛˈstriːn)
Forms: α. 4 ȝhistrewyn, ȝystrewine, 5 yistrevyn, ȝistreuen. β. 6 ȝestrene, ȝistrene, yestrene, yeistrein, 8– yestreen. γ. corruptly. 6 the strene, 8 the straine, 9 the streen, thestreen.
[MSc. ȝystrewin = ȝystir (see yesterday) + ewin even n., in the 16th c. contracted to ȝistrene, later yestreen (18th cent.), in which form it was taken up by English writers.]
A. adv. On the evening of yesterday; yesterday evening.
| α c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxiii. (vii Sleepers) 229 Ȝystrewine wele lat. a 1400 Northern Passion 1489 Ȝhistrewyn when þe day was gane. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales 245 Yone gude liberall monke, your hostley, servid me yistrevyn at my supper wurthelie. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 7426 Ȝistreuen he was in his awen steed. |
| β 1513 Douglas æneis v. xi. 72 In my sleip ȝestrene. 1583 in 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. 422/2 Twa missives, the ane..quhilk he ressauit yeistrein. a 1600 Montgomerie Sonn. xli. 1 So suete a kis ȝistrene fra thee I reft. 1721 Ramsay Bessy Bell & Mary Gray i, Bessy Bell I loo'd yestreen. 1785 Burns Halloween xv, I mind't as weel's yestreen. 1821 Scott Pirate vii, I did feel a rheumatize in my back⁓spauld yestreen. 1837 Lowell Let. to G. B. Loring 23 Aug., An' 'twas but late yestreen I met her And—ah! those een! 1894 Crockett Raiders iii, He was tired yestreen, and he's the better o' a rest this morning. |
| γ 1587 W. Fowler Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 129/88 That which long tyme past before or present is in sight, which was the strene, or yit tomorrow. 1711 Sir Eger, Sir Grahame, & Sir Gray-Steel 1753 The streen to chamber I him led. 1790 Morison Poems 134 The merligoes are yet before your e'en And paint to you the sight ye've seen the streen. ? a 1800 Fair Ellen xxiv. in Child Ballads (1894) V. 221/2, I dreamed a dream san the strain. 1873 [P. Buchan] Leg. North 29 Quo he, ‘Guidwife! I had a thocht thestreen’. |
B. n. The evening of yesterday.
| 1816 Scott Antiq. xi, When the sea was working like barm wi' yestreen's wind. 1861 J. R. Green Lett. (1901) ii. 75, I spent yestreen at the Crystal Palace. |