昨日

昨日

1. (formal or dialectal) yesterday

   儂啥體昨日嘸沒上班去？ [Shanghainese, trad.]
   侬啥体昨日呒没上班去？ [Shanghainese, simp.]

   ⁶non ⁵sa--thi₅ ⁷tsoq-gniq₈ ⁶m-meq₈ ⁶zaon-pe₁-chi₅ [Wugniu]

   Why didn't you go to work yesterday?

昨日

1. (Min) day before yesterday

   𪜶兩翁仔某昨日就出國去𨑨迌矣。 [Hokkien, trad.]
   𪜶两翁仔某昨日就出国去𨑨迌矣。 [Hokkien, simp.]

   In nn̄g ang-á-bó͘ cho̍h--ji̍t tō chhut-kok khì chhit-thô--ah. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]

   The husband and wife went out of the country the day before yesterday to play.

/ki no pu/ → /kinoɸu/ → */kinowu/ → /kinou/ → /kinoː/

From Old Japanese, ultimately from Proto-Japonic *kinəpu.

The initial ki is unclear, but is likely the same ki element that appears in other words pertaining to the past. This may be related to the now-obsolete auxiliary verb き (ki) indicating the recollective past -- see けり (keri). The middle no appears to be the regular genitive particle の (no). The final pu is an apophonic form of 日 (hi, “day”),^[1] also found in 今日 (kepu→kyō, “today”).

Martin suggests that the initial ki might also be related to Old Japanese 來 (ku, “to come”), modern 来る (kuru),^[2] presumably via the 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “continuative or stem form”) of ki. However, this is problematic both semantically, as "the coming day" would presumably refer to tomorrow rather than yesterday; and grammatically, as a verb modifying a noun would be expected to conjugate into the regular attributive form (for 來 (ku) that would be kuru), rather than into the continuative form that then necessitates a particle.

The kanji are orthographic borrowing from Chinese 昨日 (zuórì).

• (Tokyo) きのー (Nakadaka – )^[3][4][5] (noun)
• (Tokyo) きのー (Heiban – )^[3][5] (adverb)
• IPA^(key):

昨日(きのう) • (kinō) ^{←きのふ (kinofu)?}

1. yesterday

   昨日(きのう)、東(とう)京(きょう)は曇(くも)りでしたか。

   Kinō, Tōkyō wa kumori deshita ka.

   Was it cloudy in Tokyo yesterday?

From Middle Chinese compound 昨日 (dzak nyit, literally “yesterday + day ”). Compare modern Cantonese reading zok⁶ jat⁶.

• (Tokyo) さくじつ (Nakadaka – )^[3][4][5]
• IPA^(key):

昨(さく)日(じつ) • (sakujitsu) 

1. yesterday

From Old Japanese. The initial ki is unclear, but is likely the same ki element that appears in other words pertaining to the past. This may be related to the now-obsolete auxiliary verb き (ki) indicating the recollective past -- see けり (keri). The final so is also unclear, but is probably the same as the final zo in 去年(こぞ) (kozo).^[1]

This may have been read as kizo in Old Japanese.^[1][4]

• IPA^(key):

昨日(きそ) • (kiso) 

1. last night
2. yesterday

昨日 • (jagil) (hangeul 작일)

1. hanja form^? of 작일 (“yesterday”)

昨日(きぬ) (kinu) 

1. yesterday

• 一昨日(きぬうってぃ) (kinu uttï, “the day before yesterday”)