# Etymology of "tomorrow" and "yesterday" in various languages



## chrysalid

Greetings,

I have noticed that the words “tomorrow – morning/ early” and “yesterday – evening/ night” are related in various languages. As for the first one, it makes sense when you consider the morning as the beginning of the next day and the night as something past, thus, belonging to the day before (or does it? I don't know, it depends on the time of the day you make this judgement I suppose ) The latter example might not be observed as frequent as the first one but still it exists in some languages. Another thing is that "yesterday” in some languages is related to number “two” in the sense of “second day from today”. 

The examples below are totally limited to my own knowledge and other examples can be added to the list but the examples from the same language families will probably be quite similar like German “morgen” (morgen-morgen) and English “morrow” (tomorrow-morning).

*Today*

German 
Morgen for both tomorrow and morning

Armenian
վաղը (vaghy) – tomorrow
վաղ (vagh) - early

Russian
завтра (zavtra) - tomorrow
утро (utro) - morning

Spanish
mañana for both

Kazakh
ертең (erteng) - tomorrow
ерте (erte) – early, morning

Arabic
The root بكر (bakara)- as far as I know- has the sense of being early in general and the word بكرة (bukra) means tomorrow.

*Yesterday*

Russian
вчера (vchera) - yesterday 
вечер (vecher) - night 

Kazakh
кеше (keshe) - yesterday
кеш (kesh) – night

Lithuanian
vakar - yesterday
vakaras - evening

Armenian
երեկ (yereg) - yesterday
երկու (yergu) - two

German
Kluge in his etymological dictionary states that gestern and yesterday both mean “on the second day from this” but I have no further information on that


Let's add more similar examples (if they ever exist) to the list from various languages


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## Irid

*Today:*

Lithuanian
Rytoj - tomorrow
Rytas - morning
Rytai - East (direction)


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## Alxmrphi

> but the examples from the same language families will probably be quite similar like German “morgen” (morgen-morgen)


In Icelandic (West Germanic) it depends on the use of the preposition before 'morgun' that changes the meaning..

*í morgun* = this morning
*á morgun* = tomorrow morning

So yeah, definitely related!  Though for yesterday (*í gær*) + evening (*kvöld*) / night (*nótt*) there is no similarity.


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## jazyk

> Spanish
> mañana for both


Right. In Portuguese we distinguish between manhã (morning) and amanhã (tomorrow), so we can say things like amanhã de/pela manhã (tomorrow morning). Manhã comes from vulgar Latin maneana, abbreviation of hora * maneana (at a matutinal hour). *Maneana comes from manis (good, favorable, benevolent). Portuguese used cras (from Latin cras, tomorrow) until the XVI century, which was then replaced amanhã.

Portuguese yesterday (ontem) (oonte in the XIII century) comes from Latin ad noctem (towards the night).


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## dinji

chrysalid said:


> German
> Kluge in his etymological dictionary states that gestern and yesterday both mean “on the second day from this” but I have no further information on that


 
The Germanic words for yesterday: Sw. _går_ ~ Icelandic _gær_ < _*g(j)aR < __*ghje:s_ 
and Engl. Yester < *ghje:s-ter-) are Indo-European and could also have meant 'tomorrow' as it did in Gothic and originally in Icelandic too.

http://runeberg.org/svetym/0301.html


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## chrysalid

jazyk said:


> Portuguese yesterday (ontem) (oonte in the XIII century) comes from Latin ad noctem (towards the night).


 
So we've got one more example for "yesterday - night". Thanks


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## dinji

Finnish 
_huomenna_ 'tomorrow (adverb)' 
_huominen_ 'the day tomorrow (noun)'
_huomen_ (archaic) 'morning'

_eilen_ 'yesterday' < Baltic Finnic _*eklen_, which due to the consonant cluster does not seem to be an inherited word but yet no further etymology is known
_ilta_ 'evening'
_ehtoo_ 'evening'


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## origumi

In Biblical Hebrew the word "emesh" אמש means both "night" and "yesterday". In modern language it became "yesterday's night".

This root is used in various Semitic languages for one of the two concepts, for example:
* Arabic: amsi = yesterday
* Akkadian (Babylon, Assyria): mushu = night
* Amharic (Ethiopia): meset = night


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## dinji

chrysalid said:


> So we've got one more example for "yesterday - night". Thanks


Semantically partially analogous is _eve_ 'previous night' and _evening_ 'night'

In Swedish _afton_ also may mean both but in addition 'the day/date before [a religious holiday]' as in "_julafton_" '24th December' and _midsommarafton/Johanneafton_ 'the day/date before Midsummer's day'


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## phosphore

Serbian: jutro ['jûtrɔ] (morning), sutra ['sûtra] (tomorrow), juče ['jûtʃe] (yesterday), veče ['vêtʃe] (evening).

I do not know if _veče_ and _juče_ are related, but _jutro_ and _sutra_ obviously are.


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## elirlandes

Their would seem to be no connection in Irish, save perhaps for yesterday & today.

aréir = last night
inné = yesterday
inniú = today
oíche = night
anocht = tonight
maidin = morning
amárach = tomorrow


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## J.F. de TROYES

dinji said:


> The Germanic words for yesterday: Sw. _går_ ~ Icelandic _gær_ < _*g(j)aR < __*ghje:s_
> and Engl. Yester < *ghje:s-ter-) are Indo-European and could also have meant 'tomorrow' as it did in Gothic and originally in Icelandic too.
> 
> http://runeberg.org/svetym/0301.html


 
In Hindi and Urdu ( I.E. language ) there is also one word to say _yesterday_ and _to-morrow_:  कल / كل   ( kal ).


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
Tomorrow is αὔριον (ancient Greek), αύριο (modern Greek), from the aeolic αὔως or the doric ἀFώς-ἀώς (dawn).
Yesterday is ἐχθὲς or χθὲς (ancient Greek), εχθές, χθες (modern Greek), οf uncertain derivation; possibly from "παρὰ τὸ ἐκθεῖν, ὅ ἐστι παρελθεῖν" (_Lexicon of Platonic words_, Timaeus the Sophist).


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## Outsider

elirlandes said:


> Their would seem to be no connection in Irish, save perhaps for yesterday & today.
> 
> aréir = last night
> inné = yesterday
> inniú = today
> oíche = night
> anocht = tonight
> maidin = morning
> amárach = tomorrow


There appears to be a connection between "night" and "tonight", as well.



J.F. de TROYES said:


> In Hindi and Urdu ( I.E. language ) there is also one word to say _yesterday_ and _to-morrow_:  कल / كل   ( kal ).


Here are two previous threads in the All Languages forum that may be of interest:

Yesterday, today, tomorrow
Day After Tomorrow and Day Before Yesterday


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## OldAvatar

Romanian:
yesterday = ieri (Lat. heri)
tomorrow = mâine (Lat. mane)


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## agami

Italian: tomorrow= domani  < lat. _de mane_;
            this morning= stamane < lat._ ista mane_.

"da mane a sera" = all day long


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## antoniost

OldAvatar said:


> Romanian:
> yesterday = ieri (Lat. heri)
> tomorrow = mâine (Lat. mane)



Other Latin descendants of *herī* 

Catalan: ahir
French: hier
Italian: ieri
Spanish: ayer


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## Frank78

chrysalid said:


> **German
> Morgen for both tomorrow and morning



It´s not quite correct. You can distunguish both by the first letter.
It´s "*m*orgen" for "tomorrow" and "(der) *M*orgen" for "morning".
 "Morgen" is capitalised because it´s a noun.


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## Hulalessar

Alxmrphi said:


> In Icelandic (West Germanic)


 
_North_ Germanic, surely.


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## brtkrbzhnv

Alxmrphi said:


> *í morgun* = this morning
> *á morgun* = tomorrow morning


That's interesting. In Swedish _i morgon_ means 'tomorrow' while 'this morning' is _i morse_ and _på morgonen_* means 'in the morning'.

* Swedish _på_ is to á (which became _å_ in Swedish) as Jamaican _pon_ is to English _on_.


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## Mishe

In Slovenian: 

jutro (n.n.) = morning 

jutri = tomorrow 

In BCS: 

jutro = morning 

sutra (coming etymologically from s-jutra, still used in this form in Montenegro) = tomorrow 

So there must be something to it


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## bibax

In Czech:

jitro (< jutro) = morning
zítra (< z-jutra) = tomorrow

večer = evening
včera (< večera) = yesterday

den = day
dnes (< dne-s _this day_) = today


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## Brioche

Frank78 said:


> It´s not quite correct. You can distunguish both by the first letter.
> It´s "*m*orgen" for "tomorrow" and "(der) *M*orgen" for "morning".
> "Morgen" is capitalised because it´s a noun.




That's just German rules for capitalisation.

If I write 
_It will rain tomorrow_ *
M*orgen wird es regnen, 
I still write *m*orgen with a capital even though it means tomorrow.


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## Maroseika

chrysalid said:


> Russian
> вчера (vchera) - yesterday
> вечер (vecher) - night


Вечер is not a night but an evening (as in Latvian) and according to Chernykh may origin from *veko (lid, cover), same like веко - eyelid (lid of an eye and lid of a day).

I can add:

*Veps *(cf. with Finnish)
homendez - morning
homen - tomorrow

eht - evening 
? - yesterday


*Chuvash*
ир (ir) - morning
ыран (iran) - tomorrow 

каҫ (kas) - evening
ӗнер (ener) - yesterday (different stems)


*Tatar*
иртә (irte) - morning
иртәгә (irtegue) - tomorrow 

кич (kich) - evening
кичә (kiche) - yesterday 


*Uzbek*
 erta - morning
 ertaga - tomorrow 

 kech - evening
 kecha - yesterday 


*Kirghiz*
 эртең (erten) - morning, tomorrow

 кеч (kech) - evening
 кечээ (kechee) - yesterday


*Tajik*
  пагоҳӣ (pagokhi) - morning
  пагоҳ (pagokh) - tomorrow 


*Ossetian*
   сом (som) - tomorrow
   райсом (raisom) - morning (rai - early)

изæр (izar) - evening
знон (znon) and Digor. æзинæ (azina) - yesterday


but:

*Georgian*
  დილა (dila) - morning
  ხვალ (khval) - tomorrow 

  ღამე (game) - night
საღამო (sagamo) - evening
  გუშინ (gushin)- yesterday 
ორი (ori) - two


*Hungarian*:
holnap (hol - where, nap - day) - tomorrow
tegnap (teg - ?) - yesterday


*Komi-Moksha*
шобда (shobda) - dark
шобдава (shobdava) - morning (obviousely originally - morning twillight).


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## Frank78

Brioche said:


> That's just German rules for capitalisation.
> 
> If I write
> _It will rain tomorrow_ *
> M*orgen wird es regnen,
> I still write *m*orgen with a capital even though it means tomorrow.



Of course, we capitalise at the beginning of a sentence. 

Es wird *am Morgen *regnen./Morgen*s *wird es regnen. - It will rain in the morning
Es wird *morgen* regnen./Morgen wird es regnen. - It will rain tomorrow

Sorry, now I know what you were up to:
*M*orgen for both tomorrow and morning


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## felicity09

The Irish words 'oiche and anocht'  are quite similar to the Spanish noche (night) and anoche (last night) and anochecer (dusk).


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## Maroseika

One more way to express the idea of the morning:

Mongolian бага үд (baga ud)
baga - small
ud - midday


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## park84

Catalan:
demà - tomorrow
matí - morning


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## Joa'Quim

park84 said:


> Català:
> demà - tomorrow
> matí - morning


ahir - yesterday


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## Favara

park84 said:


> Catalan:
> demà - tomorrow





Joa'Quim said:


> ahir - yesterday


*+*
anit: last night
despús-ahir: two days ago
despús-demà: the day after tomorrow
enguany: this year


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## Joa'Quim

Favara said:


> *+*
> 
> anit: last night
> despús-ahir: two days ago
> despús-demà: the day after tomorrow
> enguany: this year


 
despús-ahir: two days ago........................ _aqui diem: avans d'ahir_
despús-demà: the day after tomorrow......... _aqui diem: demà passat_


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## Epilio

In Spanish _mañana_ is used for both tomorrow and morning, but it exists another way of saying tomorrow, i.e; _cras_. It allows to avoid the redundancy of _mañana por la mañana_ (tomorrow morning). It fell into disuse however, but in literature.

It comes from the Latin cras.


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## Kate_1221

Dutch:

Tomorrow: Morgen
Morning: Morgen, _or _ochtend

Yesterday: Gisteren
Night: Nacht
Evening: Avond


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## Dragonseed

And in Mandarin Chinese, "tomorrow" is "明天" (literaly: "light - day").
Definitely, the link is the same between the idea of "rising sun" (=light) and the concept of the next day.


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## Orion7

Latvian:
_Rīts_ - morning
_Šorīt_ - this morning
_Vakarrīt_ - yesterday morning
_Rīt, rītu_ - tomorrow
_Rītā, rītan_ - tomorrow morning
_Parīt_ - the day after tomorrow
_Aizparīt_ - two days after tomorrow
_Aizaizparīt_ - three days after tomorrow

_Vakars_ - evening
_Šovakar_ - this evening
_Rītvakar_ - tomorrow evening
_Vakar_ - yesterday
_Aizvakar_ - the day before yesterday, two days ago
_Aizaizvakar_ - two days before yesterday, three days ago


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## Imber Ranae

OldAvatar said:


> Romanian:
> yesterday = ieri (Lat. heri)
> tomorrow = mâine (Lat. mane)



Interesting. _heri_ does mean "yesterday" in Latin, but _mane_ means only "morning"; "tomorrow" is _cras_.


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## SkyScout

*Slavic words for "tomorrow":*

I recall reading/studying that several of the Slavic languages define the word "tomorrow" by associating it with the preposition for *"with"* - either *"z"* or *"s".*

Thus, *"morning"* becomes _*"with the morning"*_, meaning *"tomorrow":*

Czech = "zítra" versus "jitro"
Serbo-Croatian = "sutra/сутра" versus "jutro" / "јутро"
Russian = "завтра" versus "утро"
Slovak = "zajtra" 
Ukrainian = "завтра"

Slovak and Ukrainian use some form of "rano" instead, for "morning"


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## bibax

> Slovak and Ukrainian use some form of "rano" instead, for "morning"


Czech also uses *ráno* (besides jitro) , adj. raný means matutinal.


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## Rajki

A real linguistic revolutionary, Hindi.

kal = tomorrow
kal = yesterday

It is easy, isn't it?

By the way, this pattern is also followed by other languages in India (Bengali, Punjabi, etc.)

All from Sanskrit kalya (dawn).


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## san4os

Hello!
It's useful forum!
Now, I am studying lexicology and phonetics!

in Romanian it will be:
ieri - yesterday
miine - tomorrow
azi - today

My granny live there! My father was born there! so, I know Romanian a little bit! =)

Have a nice hollidays! 

*[url snipped, see **WR guidelines**.*
*Frank, moderator EHL]*


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## hollabooiers

This is an interesting topic.  It's the same thing in Estonian with tomorrow/morning, but there's nothing that'd match with yesterday.

Estonian: 

homme - tomorrow
hommik - morning

eile - yesterday
õhtu - evening
öö - night


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## Awwal12

Maroseika said:


> *Komi-Moksha*
> шобда (shobda) - dark
> шобдава (shobdava) - morning (obviousely originally - morning twillight).


Dear Maroseika, "Komi-Moksha" is surely a new word in both ethnography and linguistics! 
These words belong to the *Moksha-Mordvin* language. Also I cannot get how they are related with "yesterday" and "tomorrow".

"Tomorrow" in Moksha-Mordvin (as well as in *Erzya-Mordvin*) will be "ванды" /v*a*ndy/, probably from "ваномс" /v*a*noms/ (to look, to watch).
"Yesterday" in the both languages will be "исяк" /isy*a*k/ (although I cannot provide the etymology in the Moksha language; the word "evening" sounds as "илядь" /ily*a*d'/ in Moksha-Mordvin {and as "чокшнэ" /chokshne/ in Erzya-Mordvin, P.S.}.).

In the *Komi-Zyryan* language:
тӧрыт /t*ə*ryt/ - "yesterday" (from "рыт" /ryt/ - an evening, a west)
аски /*a*ski/ - "tomorrow" (from "асыв" /*a*syv/ - a morning, an east)


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## Abu Rashid

Arabic Yesterday: أمس (ams) or البارحة (al-baariha)
Arabic Evening: مساء (masaa')

Arabic Tomorrow: غدا (ghadan)
Arabic Morning: صباح (sabaah)

Morning doesn't seem related, although the colloquial word (as mentioned by chrysalid) for tomorrow is linked to the word for early. ghadan is related to a word meaning to go out in the morning though.


chrysalid,



> Arabic
> The root بكر (bakara)- as far as I know- has the sense of being early in general and the word بكرة (bukra) means tomorrow.



Although this is used in many dialects, it's not the standard Arabic word, and would not be used in any official usage.

origumi,



> This root is used in various Semitic languages for one of the two concepts, for example:
> * Arabic: amsi = yesterday
> * Akkadian (Babylon, Assyria): mushu = night
> * Amharic (Ethiopia): meset = night



Actually I'd think those Akkadian and Amharic words would more likely be cognate with مساء (masaa') which also means night/evening.


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## Maroseika

Awwal12 said:


> Dear Maroseika, "Komi-Moksha" is surely a new word in both ethnography and linguistics!
> These words belong to the *Moksha-Mordvin* language. Also I cannot get how they are related with "yesterday" and "tomorrow".


Sure, you are right - Mordvin, not Komi, my mind went blank for some reason...
And the words related only to the 'morning' for the idea of my post was to show relation between 'morning' and 'tomorrow' in different languages.


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## Rajki

Awwal12 said:


> In the *Komi-Zyryan* language:
> тӧрыт /t*ə*ryt/ - "yesterday" (from "рыт" /ryt/ - an evening, a west)


 
This is highly interesting, because in Lithuanian:

rytoj = "tomorrow" (from "rytas" - a morning)


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## giffard2

Em português:
*Manhã -* morning
*Amanhã - *tomorrow

Uma curiosidade: em francês se diz "aujourd'hui", como no português antigo "no dia de hoje". Hoje vem do latim "hoc die", então "aujourd'hui" significa "no dia deste dia"


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## Pedro y La Torre

In French, it goes:

Aujourd'hui - Today (Hui being cognate with the Spanish _hoy _both deriving from the Latin _hodie_)
Demain - Tomorrow
Hier - Yesterday
(Ce) matin - (This) Morning


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## XiaoRoel

_*Galego*_: 
*
hoxe* < lt. hodie
*onte(s)* < lt. ad nocte[m]
*antonte(s)* < lt. antea ad nocte[m]
*trasantonte* < lt. trans ante ad noctem
*mañá* < lt. (hora[m]) maneana[m] (lt. maneana < mane < manus, -a, -um 'claro')
*pasadomañá* < gl. pasado + mañá
_
Partes en que se divide o día:_
*
a/de/pola mañá* < gl. a/de/por + a + mañá
*abrente* < lt. aperiente[m]
*(a)mencer* < lt. ad manescere
*alborada* < gl. albor < lt albus
*mañá* < lt. (hora) maneana[m]
*mediodía* < gl. medio + dia (<lt. dies)
*tarde* < lt. tarde
*serán* < lt. vg. seranu < lt. serus
*noitiña* < gl noite + -iña (sufixo diminutivo)
*luscofusco/lusquefusque* < gl. lusco + fusco
*noite* < lt. nocte[m]
*madrugada* < lt vg. maturicata <lt. vg. maturicare < lt. maturare


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## Machaut

giffard2 said:


> Em português:
> *Manhã -* morning
> *Amanhã - *tomorrow
> 
> Uma curiosidade: em francês se diz "aujourd'hui", como no português antigo "no dia de hoje". Hoje vem do latim "hoc die", então "aujourd'hui" significa "no dia deste dia"



Encore plus intéressant !  En français parlé on dit assez souvent "au jour d'aujourd'hui" qui veut dire (en portugais) "no dia deste dia deste dia" !!  On se demande si d'ici quelques années/siècles on ne va pas arriver à une forme comme "au jour d'aujourd'aujourd'hui" ...


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## clevermizo

Well, I'm learning a lot about Maltese these days, so here are tomorrow and yesterday:

Yesterday: *biereħ *([*'bi:ε.rεħ*]) cognate with Arabic بارح (_baareħ_). I think the root b-r-ħ connotes something have left or gone away (the day in this case, I suppose). [ħ] is as in IPA. The Arabic root b-r-ħ is also used to mean yesterday as noted above in this thread by Abu Rashid (البارحة).

Tomorrow:_ *għada*_([*'aˤ:.da*]). This is cognate with Arabic غد [ɣad], meaning _tomorrow_. This is from a root meaning morning ɣ-d-w. A related word in Maltese is *għodwa *[*'oˤ:.dwa*] meaning 'morning.'


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## WadiH

Abu Rashid said:


> Arabic Yesterday: أمس (ams) or البارحة (al-baariha)
> Arabic Evening: مساء (masaa')
> 
> Arabic Tomorrow: غدا (ghadan)
> Arabic Morning: صباح (sabaah)
> 
> Morning doesn't seem related, although the colloquial word (as mentioned by chrysalid) for tomorrow is linked to the word for early. ghadan is related to a word meaning to go out in the morning though.



The words غدوة ,غد, and غداة mean morning in Classical Arabic; think of the Quranic phrase في الغدوّ والآصال ("in the mornings and the evenings").  بكرة also means morning (again think of Quranic بكرةً وأصيلاً or بكرةً وعشياً), and in the same way بكرة and باكر can be used for "tomorrow."  This dates from pre-Islamic times:
قال سيبويه: من العرب من يقول أَتيتك بُكْرَةً؛ نَكِرَةٌ مُنَوَّنٌ، وهو يريد في يومه أَو غده.

But you're right that in Modern Standard Arabic one would not use _bukra _for "tomorrow."


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## SkyScout

SkyScout said:


> *Slavic words for "tomorrow":*
> 
> I recall reading/studying that several of the Slavic languages define the word "tomorrow" by associating it with the preposition for *"with"* - either *"z"* or *"s".*
> 
> Thus, *"morning"* becomes _*"with the morning"*_, meaning *"tomorrow":*
> 
> Czech = "zítra" versus "jitro"
> Serbo-Croatian = "sutra/сутра" versus "jutro" / "јутро"
> Russian = "завтра" versus "утро"
> Slovak = "zajtra"
> Ukrainian = "завтра"
> 
> Slovak and Ukrainian use some form of "rano" instead, for "morning"



I wish to follow up further to my above post:

I should have realized when I made my above remarks, that the reason the words for "tomorrow" change their spellings - their "ending" from "o" to "a" - is because the word changes from its *nominative case* to a *genitive case *because of the addition of the prefix "s" or "z".

Thus, for example, in Russian and Serb-Croatian, the word morning is:
*"jutro" or "utro",* but when the prefix of "s" or "z" was added, this automatically converted* "jutro" into "jutra" -* its genitive case.
The passage of time, of course, blended the final spellings into:
*"sutra" and "zavtra".*


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## Blas de Lezo

*Spanish*:

Anteayer: day before yesterday
Ayer: yesterday
Hoy: today
*Mañana*: tomorrow
Pasadomañana: day after tomorrow

*Mañana*: morning
Tarde: evening
Tarde: late


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## DenisBiH

SkyScout said:


> *Slavic words for "tomorrow":*
> 
> I recall reading/studying that several of the Slavic languages define the word "tomorrow" by associating it with the preposition for *"with"* - either *"z"* or *"s".*
> 
> Thus, *"morning"* becomes _*"with the morning"*_, meaning *"tomorrow":*
> 
> Czech = "zítra" versus "jitro"
> Serbo-Croatian = "sutra/сутра" versus "jutro" / "јутро"
> Russian = "завтра" versus "утро"
> Slovak = "zajtra"
> Ukrainian = "завтра"
> 
> Slovak and Ukrainian use some form of "rano" instead, for "morning"




Preposition s(a) in BCMS languages ("Serbo-Croatian") can be used with nouns both in genitive and instrumental case(s) and has different meanings depending on the case used.

When having the meaning "with" it would demand instrumental, so "with the morning" would be "s(a) jutr*om*".

Unless sutra < "s jutra" here is a fossilized remnant of some earlier form of declension, "s jutra" would mean "*from/off* the morning" (compare with "sjahati s konja" - "dismount (from) a horse").


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## Aoyama

> Italian: tomorrow= domani < lat. _de mane_;


French : demain / le lendemain (the following day, the morrow).

Japanese : yesterday : kinou (previous day), senjitsu/sakujitsu (polite way, same meaning, Sino-Japanese reading)
tomorrow : ashita (literally : bright day), myonichi (polite way, ....)
Chinese : yesterday : zuo tian /qian ri (literary) (zuo = Japanese saku)
tomorrow : ming tian / ming ri (...) (bright sky/day, ming = Japanese myo)

Modern Hebrew : yesterday = etmol, tomorrow : makhar (cf. #8)


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## JakubikF

I think Polish words have not been mentioned yet.

*tomorrow - jutro* (which I think represents a minority among other Slavic languages)
We DO NOT use word "jutro" as a name for "morning", however it probably is historically related with that meaning. The only way to express the early time of a day is "rano" (morning)

*yesterday - wczoraj*


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## Rallino

In Turkish there is no connection, or at least I can't see any.

tomorrow: *Yarın*
Today: *Bugün*
yesterday: *Dün*
Morning: *Sabah*
Evening: *Akşam*
Two: *İki*


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## chrysalid

Rallino said:


> In Turkish there is no connection, or at least I can't see any.
> 
> tomorrow: *Yarın*
> Today: *Bugün*
> yesterday: *Dün*
> Morning: *Sabah*
> Evening: *Akşam*
> Two: *İki*



Well, there is actually, if you dig in. "yarın" used to mean morning as well but I don't know when it lost that meaning. "Tün" meant night and today, it is preserved in "tünek" (roost) and "tünemek" (to roost)

Being an Arabic word, "sabah" is obviously unrelated. There is no concensus on the origin of "akşam" but few linguists say it is a Turkic word. I mostly came across the suggestion that it is of Iranian origin, either Sogdian or Persian, thus, unrelated here as well.


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## Blas de Lezo

Blas de Lezo said:


> *Spanish*:
> 
> Anteayer: day before yesterday
> Ayer: yesterday
> Hoy: today
> *Mañana*: tomorrow
> Pasadomañana: day after tomorrow
> 
> *Mañana*: morning
> Tarde: evening
> Tarde: late



Also, I forgot:

*Anoche*: the night between today and yesterday
*Anteanoche*: the night between yesterday and the day before yesterday.


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## Encolpius

Maroseika said:


> *Hungarian*:
> holnap (hol - where, nap - day) - tomorrow
> tegnap (teg - ?) - yesterday



holnap [< hol: Uralic word, it meant "morning"; nothing to do with hol (where)]

tegnap [< tegenap < tege extinct, it meant yesterday, lately + nap ]


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## Angelo di fuoco

DenisBiH said:


> Preposition s(a) in BCMS languages ("Serbo-Croatian") can be used with nouns both in genitive and instrumental case(s) and has different meanings depending on the case used.
> 
> When having the meaning "with" it would demand instrumental, so "with the morning" would be "s(a) jutr*om*".
> 
> Unless sutra < "s jutra" here is a fossilized remnant of some earlier form of declension, "s jutra" would mean "*from/off* the morning" (compare with "sjahati s konja" - "dismount (from) a horse").



In Russian there's also a difference between the preposition used with the genitive case and the one used with the instrumental case: "с утра" (since the morning") vs. "с утром" (with the morning).
However, I think there is one more possible variant for the genitive case preposition: "из утра" ("out of the morning"), corrupted to "завтра". I think this is the more probable variant because Russian did not mix up fonetically the prepositions "из" "out of", "from", "c" "from" genitive case, and "с" "with", instrumental case, which occurred in many other Slavic languages.


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## mataripis

_Tagalog: 1.) Tomorrow= Bukas_  2._Yesterday= Kahapon    the word ///"Bukas" could mean also opening/beginning coined from ancient word for flower which is "Bukah"(Archaic Tagalog 822 A.D.). The word "Kahapon" has the root word "APO" maybe of Greek origin meaning from/coming from._


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## ravivararo

chrysalid said:


> Greetings,
> 
> I have noticed that the words “tomorrow – morning/ early” and “yesterday – evening/ night” are related in various languages. As for the first one, it makes sense when you consider the morning as the beginning of the next day and the night as something past, thus, belonging to the day before (or does it? I don't know, it depends on the time of the day you make this judgement I suppose ) The latter example might not be observed as frequent as the first one but still it exists in some languages. Another thing is that "yesterday” in some languages is related to number “two” in the sense of “second day from today”.
> 
> The examples below are totally limited to my own knowledge and other examples can be added to the list but the examples from the same language families will probably be quite similar like German “morgen” (morgen-morgen) and English “morrow” (tomorrow-morning).
> 
> *Today*
> 
> German
> Morgen for both tomorrow and morning
> 
> Armenian
> վաղը (vaghy) – tomorrow
> վաղ (vagh) - early
> 
> Russian
> завтра (zavtra) - tomorrow
> утро (utro) - morning
> 
> Spanish
> mañana for both
> 
> Kazakh
> ертең (erteng) - tomorrow
> ерте (erte) – early, morning
> 
> Arabic
> The root بكر (bakara)- as far as I know- has the sense of being early in general and the word بكرة (bukra) means tomorrow.
> 
> Let's add more similar examples (if they ever exist) to the list from various languages



In Tamil also, நாள் nāḷ means morning. _நாளை nāḷai_ means Tomorrow.


நாள் nāḷ _n_. 1. [T. _nāḍu_, M. _nāḷ_.] Day of 24 hours; தினம். சாதலொருநா ளொருபொழு தைத் துன்பம் (நாலடி, 295). 2. [T. _nāḍu_, M. _nāḷ_.] Time; காலம். பண்டைநாள் (கம்பரா. நட்பு. 43). 3. Lifetime, life; ஆயுள். நாளோடு வாள்கொடுத்த நம்பன் றன்னை (தேவா. 219, 10). 4. Auspicious day; நல்ல நாள். நாட்கேட்டுக் கல்யாணஞ் செய்து (நாலடி, 86). 5. *Early dawn; காலை*. நாண்மோர் மாறும் (பெரும்பாண். 160). 6. Forenoon; முற் பகல். நாணிழற்போல விளியுஞ் சிறியவர் கேண்மை (நாலடி, 166). 7. Lunar asterism; நட்சத்திரம். திங்களு நாளு முந்துகிளந் தன்ன (தொல். எழுத். 286). 8. Lunar day, period of the moon's passage through an asterism; திதி. (W.) 9. Freshness, newness; புதுமை. கோதையை நாணீராட்டி (சிலப். 16, 8). 10. Youth, juvenility, tenderness; இளமை. நௌவி நாண்மறி (குறுந். 282). 11. New-blown flower; அன்றலர்ந்த பூ. பொன்குறையுநாள் வேங்கை நீழலுள் (திணைமாலை. 31). 12. A symbolic expression of the last metrical foot of one syllable, in _veṇpā

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.7:1:3550.tamillex


நாளை nāḷai [M. nāḷa.] adv. 1. Tomorrow; அடுத்ததினத்தில். நாளை வதுவை மண மென்று நாளிட்டு (திவ். நாய்ச். 6, 2).--adj. Pertaining to a day; நாளுக்குரிய. ஒருநாளை யின்பமே காமுறுவர் (நாலடி, 54).

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.7:1:3601.tamillex_


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## arsham

Persian
Tomorrow: fardâ>middle persian fradâg> old persian *fradâka- from fra- forth+dâ- put, set +-ka nominal suffix, so it litterally means set forth or *foreput


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## Roy776

JakubikF said:


> I think Polish words have not been mentioned yet.
> 
> *tomorrow - jutro* (which I think represents a minority among other Slavic languages)
> We DO NOT use word "jutro" as a name for "morning", however it probably is historically related with that meaning. The only way to express the early time of a day is "rano" (morning)
> 
> *yesterday - wczoraj*



One should also mention the similarity of *Wczoraj (Yesterday)* to *Wieczór* *(Evening)*. I don't know if they are related or not, but they still seem similar.
The corresponding Polish words are these:

morning: *Rano*
tomorrow: *Jutro* (Also usable as a noun. E.g.: *"Kłucz do lepszego jutra." (Key to a better tomorrow*)
evening: *Wieczór*
yesterday: *Wczoraj
*night:*Noc
*day:* Dzień
*today:* Dziś/Dzisiaj*


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## ravivararo

elirlandes said:


> Their would seem to be no connection in Irish, save perhaps for yesterday & today.
> 
> inné = yesterday
> inniú = today



I wish to compare (Tamil word நென்னல் neṉṉal ->) Malayalam ഇന്നലെ innale with inné and (Tamil இன்று iṉṟu -> ) Malayalam ഇന്ന് _innu_ with inniú.


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## OBrasilo

Sorry for the thread revival, but anyway, in Japanese there's definitely a connection between morning and tomorrow: Tomorrow is either _asu_ (明日) or _ashita_ (明日, 朝). Morning is _asa_ (朝). The word is almost the same, with an _as-_ root, and it can even be written with the same Chinese character (朝). There is however no connection between yesterday and evening in Japanese.

Also, for Slavic, here is Slovenian: tomorrow is _jutri_, while morning is _jutro_ - quite connected IMHO. Yesterday is _včeraj_, while evening is _večer_. Could very well be connected.


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