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Is there a more succinct expression for "the day before yesterday"?

In German for example, gestern = 'yesterday.' The prefix vor roughly means before, so logically, vorgestern means 'the day before yesterday.'

Similarly, morgen = 'tomorrow', the prefix über roughly means over, so again, übermorgen means 'the day after tomorrow.'

(In Mandarin Chinese also you have respectively 前天 & 後天.)

Presumably, there are also similarly logical ways to say "the page after the next" or "the paragraph before the last", etc.

Are there no similarly succinct, and graceful, expressions in English?

hazzik
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  • Two years from now. The very last paragraph. Those don't seem too glaringly ungraceful. – J.R. Mar 31 '13 at 19:47
  • When you design your own language, you can make up the rules. If you tried anything like 'foreyesterday' or 'overmorrow', if people had the slightest idea of what you're talking about, they'd laugh. Why aren't languages logical? They are, for the most part, except for the exceptions. – Mitch Mar 31 '13 at 20:03
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    there may be many words that exist only in English too, so literally we can not compare one language with other on this basis, rather your question should be.. are their any words for this & this, /however nudiustertian - Pertaining to the day before yesterday. – Raghav Mar 31 '13 at 20:05
  • possible duplicate of Is there a one-word English term for the day after tomorrow? – Mitch Apr 01 '13 at 04:11
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    But not a true duplicate, as this question is as much about the day before yesterday as it is about the day after tomorrow. – MetaEd Apr 01 '13 at 04:44
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    Voting to re-open, there's even a real good answer here. – Kris May 08 '13 at 05:20
  • Two days ago., Two days from now. Two days hence. In two days. – SrJoven Nov 24 '14 at 15:15
  • There was a comic about 40 years back who coined a term something like "manubaday". Unfortunately, I can't remember his name. – Hot Licks Feb 02 '20 at 19:40
  • OK, it was maloobaday and the comic was George Carlin. Unfortunately there appears to be no Youtube of this very funny piece. – Hot Licks Feb 03 '20 at 18:22

5 Answers5

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The words you are looking for exist in English, but they have been abandoned and are only found in old texts.

And Iacob behelde Labans countenaunce,   And Jacob beheld Laban’s countenance,  
& beholde, it was not towarde him as     and behold, it was not toward him as  
yesterday and ereyesterday.              yesterday and ereyesterday.

—1535, Coverdale, Bible, Genesis 31:2.¹ Spelling modernization mine.

Thē ſpake Tobias unto the virgin, and    Then spake Tobias unto the virgin, and  
ſayde: Up Sara, let us make oure         said: Up Sarah, let us make our  
prayer unto God to daye, tomorow, and    prayer unto God today, tomorrow, and  
ouermorow: for theſe thre nightes wil    overmorrow: for these three nights will  
we reconcyle oure ſelues with God: and   we reconcile ourselves with God: and  
whan the thirde holy night is paſt, we   when the third holy night is past, we  
ſhall ioyne together in ye deutye of     shall join together in the duty of  
mariage.                                 marriage.

—1535, Myles Coverdale, The Byble, that is, the Holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Teſtament, faythfully tranſlated into Englyſhe, Tobit 8:4, page D.iiij.² Spelling modernization mine.

Note how closely these words are related to the German you ask about, because these languages have a common ancestor. Consider these sister terms:

  • over- and über- “from Proto-Germanic *uberi”³
  • yester- and gestern “from Proto-Germanic *gestra-”⁴
  • morrow⁵ and morgen “from Proto-Germanic *murgana- ‘morning’”⁶
MetaEd
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From the past to the future:

   -2 days                         -1 day               +1 day                +2 days  
   ereyesterday or nudiustertian   yesterday    today   tomorrow (or morrow)  overmorrow

The fact that they are not all in current usage does not mean they will not revamp sooner or later.

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ereyesterday is defined in many dictionaries as the day before yesterday

overmorrow, although someone ridiculed it, does in fact exist and i wish we would be more biased towards fact checking than towards ridiculing others, it is defined in dictionaries

though the more basic and very basic dictionaries won't contain any of these words

Sergio Spiritus Sancti
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0

Try Yestereve. I've heard Ereyesterday as stated above, but prefer yestereve, which has seen archaic usage in english (and ought to see more contemporary usage!) I also think yestereve has the added benefit of being understandable by someone who has never heard it, 'eve being a common word for day-before (e.g. new year's eve, christmas eve) and yester only really being used in the word yesterday. As such, yestereve is more solvable than ereyesterday.

Eric
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    Yestereve means just what one would expect from what its elements mean: yesterday evening. Not "the day before yesterday". Chambers says so. Also: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yestereve https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/yestereve – Rosie F Feb 02 '20 at 21:10
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Penultimate means last but one, but is used more in the context of a finite number of things, eg on the penultimate page (of a book with a finite number of pages).

You wouldn't use it in the sense of the day before yesterday, which is something which would change depending on which day you are using as your reference point. But you could say the penultimate day before the holidays.

Mynamite
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