[Sound of person struggling, as in with washing a pan in an infomercial]
How many times has this happened to you?
I have plans tomorrow, but I should be free on, you know, like the day after tomorrow. Like not tomorrow, but the day after. Uh… Sunday, yeah, Sunday.
Each language has its own limitations, but something that has puzzled English speakers is the lack of a word for the day after tomorrow. While many languages can express this thought in a mere one word, there is no commonly regarded term for this in the English language. At least, not recently.
There is a term called overmorrow, but this word has some disagreement among dictionary publishers. While the likes of the Oxford English Dictionary publish the term as an adjective and adverb, Dictionary.com claims it’s a verb. Meanwhile, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary does not feature the term at all.
But the word overmorrow is a direct translation of the German word “übermorgen,” a word ingrained into the German language.
[Rob Ryder] It’s used quite often in colloquial speech. People use it all the time.
That’s Rob Ryder, an Assistant Professor of Instruction for Northwestern’s German Department. He added that there are other terms for specific time frames in the German language, such as the day before yesterday.
[RR] It’s vorgestern. It’s a single German word. Vorgestern is one word which we need four words for in English.
But how was the German language able to establish this terminology and implement it so often?
[RR] First of all, you have to think about the German culture a little bit and how efficient they like to be all the time. And I feel like, sometimes, the language itself reflects the culture and the people.
These terms are often compound words, combining prefixes, suffixes, and often, multiple words at a time. When asked about the source of this mass of compound words, he pointed to an unlikely source: famous authors, The Brothers Grimm.
[RR] They were very much interested in the German language, and the growth of the German language. There’s a dictionary online, anyone can access it, and it’s massive. So, they not only give all the different options for “ableugnen” or all these other sorts of combinations of prefixes and verbs, but they also give examples of where they’re found.
While the German language has this unique method for combining words to tell dates and times more specifically, I was left wondering… do other languages have a term for this? Is it used often?
According to Northwestern students Tareq Mufarech and Enrique Montemayor, Spanish has a simpler, but not one-word term for the day after tomorrow. However, it’s not a quintessential part of the language.
[Enrique Montemayor] Pasado mañana.
[Tareq Mufarech] I would say I would use it like the same as in English, like when I would say the day after tomorrow
Both students emphasized that the lack of a simpler term in English was not an annoyance at all.
While most languages have popular one-word terms for this phenomenon, their existence seems to be dependent on external factors. These could be cultural or merely reflect the personalities and tendencies of those who speak it. For English speakers, overmorrow hasn’t been used consistently in centuries. But language is not always set in place.
[RR] You can always… also make words up in the German language, and, then if it starts… if more and more people use it, then suddenly, it’s a word.
Will English ever see a resurgence of overmorrow? Or perhaps a new word altogether? I’ll leave that in the hands of the people, but I know I’ll be making plans for overmorrow.
For WNUR News, I’m Gabe Shumway.
