adv. and sb. arch. and dial. Forms: 5 ȝistir-, ȝister-, ȝistur., yster-, 5– yester-: see EVEN sb. [f. YESTER- + EVEN sb. Cf. YESTREEN.]
A. adv. = YESTER-EVENING adv.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xlii. Ȝistur euyn I the king hiȝte, To cumme to my mete.
c. 1440. Partonope, 10025 (Univ. Coll. MS.). These twyn that yster even full late Caught the last stroke.
c. 1450. Merlin, 172. Yester even ye sente for vs, and I am now come.
1452[?]. Paston Lett. (1897), I. 247. My doughter your wyf told me yester even the man that suyth him will not stonde to your awarde.
1822. Byron, Werner, III. iv. The myrmidons … who were Dogging him yester-even.
1840. Talfourd, Glencoe, II. i. He has not return’d Since, yestere’en, he left us.
1857. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 313. I had yester-even a presentiment I should die before I got back.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, x. ‘When was your last spasm?’ ‘No longer agone than yestereen, ma’am.’
1880. Emma Marshall, Troub. Times, 295. I did stop yestereven when, in a rage, I was going to strike Lily, for breaking the toy gun James Ellis bought for me.
B. sb. = YESTER-EVENING sb.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xxxi. To endure the cruel disappointment of yester even.
1888. Stevenson, Black Arrow, IV. iv. Thy swinishness of yestereven.
attrib. 1578. H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 203. Let vs returne then vnto our yester euen lecture.
