The Wonderful World Of Words, 3/30/17

in #writing8 years ago

Today's word was a tough one to research and we discovered little information on it or its origins, however we found it too quaint to not feature!

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1633





DEFINITION:

Noun
The day immediately preceeding the last tempest

ETYMOLOGY/ORIGIN:

As best we may tell, "yestertempest" was coined by Gerard Manley Hopkins, referenced below. While both "yester tempest" and "yester-tempest" had apparently been in use for quite some time prior, we could find no examples nor origins.

"Yester", however, dates back to 157-80 and has its origin in Middle English and Old English "geostran", "giestro".

PRONUNCIATION:

[yes-ter-tem-pist]

SCRABBLE SCORE:

20, but it is not considered an official Scrabble word

USAGE AND EXAMPLES

Cloud-puffball, torn tufts, tossed pillows | flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-
Built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs | they throng; they glitter in marches.
Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, | wherever an elm arches,
Shivelights and shadowtackle ín long | lashes lace, lance, and pair.
Delightfully the bright wind boisterous | ropes, wrestles, beats earth bare
Of "YESTERTEMPEST'S" creases; | in pool and rut peel parches
Squandering ooze to squeezed | dough, crust, dust; stanches, starches
Squadroned masks and manmarks | treadmire toil there
Footfretted in it. Million-fuelèd, | nature's bonfire burns on.
But quench her bonniest, dearest | to her, her clearest-selvèd spark
Man, how fast his firedint, | his mark on mind, is gone!
Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark
Drowned. O pity and indig | nation! Manshape, that shone
Sheer off, disseveral, a star, | death blots black out; nor mark
Is any of him at all so stark
But vastness blurs and time | beats level. Enough! the Resurrection,
A heart's-clarion! Away grief's gasping, | joyless days, dejection.
Across my foundering deck shone
A beacon, an eternal beam. | Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; | world's wildfire, leave but ash:
In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, | since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, | patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.

--That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection
by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1985




The Tempest
Giorgione, circa 1506



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Wow, I thought it meant a joker throwing a fit.

The comedian yestertempested when he realized his jokes didn't the audience laugh.

~sigh~
My dear, dear, @pompe72, whatever shall I do with you?? You make me chuckle!