I stumbled over the word overmorrow and wanted to know whether it is in use.
So I used Googles Ngram Viewer and wondered why it has not found a single reference.
Was overmorrow only used one time in the bible?
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3Interesting: In German there's "übermorgen" which literally translates to "overmorrow" and means "the day after tomorrow".– Joachim SauerCommented Oct 17, 2011 at 11:30
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@JoachimSauer, other languages have the it (and use it), too (see the wiktionary link en.wiktionary.org/wiki/overmorrow). What is really interesting is that English had it, but lost it.– UnreasonCommented Oct 17, 2011 at 11:59
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9I am so definitely adding this word to my vocabulary.– Robert S.Commented Oct 17, 2011 at 13:57
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My first langauge is Afrikaans (South Africa - Dutch settlers) and we very commonly use the word "oormôre" which translated literally means over & morrow and also has exactly the same meaning - the day after tomorrow, therefore there should be no reason why it should not be very commonly used - especially in the place of "The day after tomorrow..." Johan du Plessis– user38240Commented Feb 25, 2013 at 14:13
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1In dutch it's called "overmorgen" and it is in common use!– user58253Commented Nov 26, 2013 at 14:54
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1 Answer
It's a bit strange - searching the google books directly for "overmorrow" gives 16 results, see here.
The measure of obsoleteness (and strangeness) is that fact that it is listed in 1913 Webster, but not in 1828 Webster. Also note that many dictionaries do not list it at all (for comparison use the results on onelook, here)
I would say that it is long obsolete word that was never common.
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5First OED citation is from 1535. Its etymology says ‘probably after German übermorgen’. It is marked as obs. rare.– tchrist ♦Commented Jan 13, 2012 at 22:50
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@tchrist Presently, overmorrow or 'lendemain'(après-demain) is regularly used in French but the etymology is "From Middle English overmorwe, a compound of over + morwe (“morrow”). Compare Dutch overmorgen, German übermorgen, Swedish övermorgon, Danish overmorgen, Norwegian overmorgen." en.wiktionary.org/wiki/overmorrow#Etymology Commented Jun 21, 2014 at 4:25