yesteryear

/ˈjɛstəjɪə/

Etymology

From yester- + year.

yesteryear means in past years. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 79 out of 100.

Why this word is great

YESTERYEAR — [Adverb, Noun] A term for the personally remembered recent past, imbued with nostalgia; it functions as an adverb meaning 'in past years'. From the combining form yester- (meaning 'previous' or 'of yesterday') + year. Unlike "yore," which conjures a distant, legendary epoch, or "last year," a precise and unpoetic measurement, yesteryear is the malleable territory of intimate memory. It is the golden-hour light on a childhood street, the obsolete weight of a coin in your pocket, the crackle of a vinyl record whose lyrics one still knows by heart—a time made poignant because it feels close enough to touch, yet is forever sealed away, a silhouette cast upon the now.

adv

In past years.“Was it yesteryear or centuries ago that the Orient Express thundered over that narrow, glistening channel and linked the Golden Horn to the Seine?”

noun

Past years; time gone by; yore.“To be old here, is to be respectable, and time-honored is the epithet most coveted. You see no sign of the doings of yesterday or yesteryear: the new is careful of obtruding itself, and comes into the world under matronage of the old.”
Last year.