Yestereven

Part of speech: noun, adverb

Definitions

1. The evening period of the day that occurred before today
2. The dusk or nightfall that took place on the day before now
3. Yesterday's evening hours, the time between sunset and night of the prior day

Etymology: "Yestereven" is a compound of two very old English words. "Yester" comes from Old English "giestran," meaning "yesterday," and "even" is the ordinary word for "evening." Put together, the Old English "giestranæfen" meant "yesterday evening," so the word was built from the same parts we would use today, just in an older form. The word has been worn down over the centuries. In Middle English, speakers shortened and altered the compound into forms such as "yistreven" and "yester even," showing how the sounds of the first part shifted as the language changed. Those alterations gradually produced the single-word spelling "yestereven" that appears in modern dictionaries.