One of the most fascinating and entertaining features of the English language is that it is in a constant state of change. As new things are created or discovered, someone, somewhere, comes up with a word to refer to it. For example, a side effect of male obesity is the growth of large, fleshy breasts that have been referred to as man boobs, or moobs. It’s perhaps something of a sign-of-the-times that we need such a word. Nevertheless, now we have ’em, we also have a name for ’em.
Yet there are also many old words that clearly were necessary for some peculiar reason but that we don’t use much now. For word lovers, it’s always fun to bring some of these out of retirement, if only – like mayflies – they can have their moment in the sun before disappearing back into obscurity for decades.
So welcome back to the spotlight the word nudiustertian, which on first inspection seems like it should have something to do with strippers and nakedness. Alas its meaning is much more prosaic – though fascinating in its own right.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it means;
Of or relating to the day before yesterday
The word literally means “today the third day” and derives from the Latin word nudestarianus, which is turn originates from the phrase nudius tertius – the day before yesterday. Breaking this down even further, the word nudius comes from nu meaning “now,” and dius for “day,” and tertius means “third.”
THE OED goes on to gives its only example of the use of the word in a sentence from 1647, taken from the ever-popular The simple cobler of Aggawam in America, written by Nathaniel Ward.
When I heare a‥Gentledame inquire‥what [is] the nudiustertian fashion of the Court; I mean the very newest.
Sadly, there are no other examples, and this is truly sad because in all honesty, it’s hard to think of a way of slipping this word into a casual sentence! Indeed, a quick Google search for “nudiustertian examples” offers lots of examples of Nathaniel’s sentence, but little else. Even the folks at the usually prolific Wordnik site can only offer one extra sentence, and that’s a comment on the use of nudiustertian by Ward.
What we may have here is a word for which there is a meaning but no functional use! Or put another way, just because there is a word for “related to the day before yesterday” doesn’t mean it’s going to be used. Remember, it’s not a noun but an adjective, so it has to be used in an adjectival way.
In truth, even Ward appears to suggest that the word should not be used in its literally sense but as meaning “the newest” or “most recent.” No wonder it never caught on.
We also have a similar, although temporally opposite, word for “related to the day after tomorrow,” which is overmorrow. Yet as with nudiustertian, having a word for something doesn’t mean we’ll use it. Given the choice between “I’ll see you tomorrow” and “I see you overmorrow,” which do you think you’re likely to use?
Shouldn’t your last contrast be “I’ll see you _the day after_ tomorrow” and ” I’ll see you overmorrow”? In that illustration, I think I prefer the second. 🙂
Good point and I wish I could learn to use “overmorrow” more in conversation 😉 It’s such as nice word but requires a little thought before use.
I think overmorrow is a great word. And it seems easy enough to use—when necessary. It replaces a specific phrase that we might not use super frequently, but often enough that it could get some use.
I was saddened by the word nudiestertian though. Other sources online erroneously state it as a noun meaning the day before yesterday. When I read that, I got excited to use a baffling-yet-functional word, but the suffix and the word itself made me second guess it, as it just doesn’t seem to fit in any sentence as a noun. Learning it was an adjective clarified, but also made the word pretty useless. 😛
By the way, I actually found one pretty good example for nudiustertian over here: http://wordsmith.org/words/nudiustertian.html
“I’d ordered the key on-line for £48 that nudiustertian morning and was not expecting it to arrive until the following week.”
Benjamin Nolan; Cyclin’ the City; Syniq.co.uk; Aug 22, 2012.
It’s definitely a tough one to nonchalantly slip into a conversation! As to it being used as a noun, you could – as you suggest- easily imagine it going that way (“I saw Bob nudiustertian” is no more complex than “I saw Bob yesterday”; it just sounds unfamiliar) but it doesn’t appear to have jumped the part-of-speech boundary over the years.