Etymologically
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hier

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /jɛʁ/[1]
  • IPA: /i.jɛʁ/[1]

Forms

hier[1] Old French ier and er, hier from 1176–1181, with an initial ⟨h⟩ added to stop the word being read jer.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French ier, inherited from Latin heri (“yesterday, (Late Latin) lately”).[2][3][4][1][5] Rey compares Sanskrit ह्यस् (hyás) and Irish “in-dé”, Littré took “heri” from an older “*hesi”, as in hesternus (“of yesterday”), beside German gestern and English yesterday.[3][6] The GLLF attributes the ⟨h⟩ to the influence of Latin.[7]

Cognate with Romanian ieri, Italian ieri, Catalan ahir and Spanish ayer.[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As ier it is found in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), meaning the day before; the same poem has ier main “yesterday morning”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It was used as a noun from about 1350.[2] By the end of the 12th century it also meant “recently” (before 1188, Partonopeus de Blois), a sense still alive in hier encore and comme si c'était hier.[2][3][9] Ne pas être fait d'hier “to be experienced” is in Vadé (1756), later ne pas être né d'hier, and cela ne date pas d'hier in 1803.[7][3] C'est pour hier, of something extremely urgent, spread in the 1990s, and African French has hier nuit “last night”.[3] The compound avant-hier “the day before yesterday” dates from about 1170.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Ier in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • c. 1170 – Avant ier.[3]
  • 1176–1181 – The spelling hier, in Chrétien de Troyes.[2]
  • before 1188 – “Recently”.[2]
  • c. 1350 – Used as a noun.[2]
  • 1756 – Ne pas être fait d'hier.[7]
  • 1990s – C'est pour hier.[3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. yesterday: hier matin, hier soir.[9][10]
  2. Recently: des techniques hier encore inconnues.[10][9]
  3. Comme si c'était hier: as if it were yesterday.[10]
  4. Ne pas être né d'hier: not to have been born yesterday.[9][7]
  5. (familiar) C'est pour hier: it's extremely urgent.[3]

Noun

  1. Yesterday: le journal d'hier, vous aviez tout hier pour y penser.[9][11]

Word family

  • avant-hier

Usage notes

It is pronounced [jɛʁ], formerly also [ijɛʁ].[12][2] A separate verb hier “to ram (paving stones) with a beetle”, from Middle Dutch heien, is now obsolete.[7][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 413a
  6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  12. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert