where are the snows of yesteryear

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

  • (file)

Phrase edit

where are the snows of yesteryear?

  1. (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

  1. ^ 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?]”