where are the snows of yesteryear
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Quotation from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "Ballad of Dead Ladies," an 1869 translation of François Villon's poem "Ballade des dames du temps jadis" (1533)[1] (in the original, où sont les neiges d'antan?). The word yesteryear was coined by Rossetti.
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (AU) (file)
Phrase[edit]
where are the snows of yesteryear?
- (rhetorical question, colloquial) Used to emphasize that life passes quickly.
- 1918 [1915], Thomas Burke, Nights in London[1], New York: Henry Holt and Company:
- Pathetic as its passing is, one cannot honestly regret the old school. I was looking last night at the programme of my very first hall, and received a terrible shock to my time-sense. Where are the snows of yesteryear? Where are the entertainers of 1895?
References[edit]
- ^ François Villon (1461) “Ballade des dames du temps jadis [Ballade of Ladies of Time Gone By]”, in Le Grand Testament (in French), published 1876: “Mais où sont les neiges d’antan ! ― Where is the snow of yesteryear?”