Additional information about 昨
說文解字: 【昨】，壘日也。 〔小徐本「壘」作「累」。〕 从日、乍聲。 【在各切】
- Criteria
- NEXT
1. The current general word referring to the next member of a contextually determinate series is cì 次 (ant. qián 前 "preceding"), and the series can be temporal as well as spatial or indeed abstract.
2. Míng 明 (ant. zuó 昨 "yester-" and zǎo 早 "earlier") refers specifically to the next member of a temporal series of days, months, or years, and míng rì 明日 does not mean "tomorrow" but can refer to tomorrow and must always be understood as "the next day, counting from the other contextually definite day". The other contextually definite day can be, but need not be, the "today" of the speech act in which the word occurs.
3. Lái 來 (ant. wǎng 往 "preceding" and xī 昔 ) is a deictic expression and refers specifically to the next member of the temporal series beginning with the present time.
4. Yì 翌 is the ancient OBI word for a period of time that is imminent, and the word always retained a literary, elevated, and even antiquated flavour.
- PAST
1. The most general current word for "formerly" referring to any time in the distant or recent past is probably xī 昔 (ant. jīn 今 "present").
2. Wǎng 往 (ant. lái 來 "future") is a general technical term for the past.
3. Céng 曾 marks an event as belonging to the past, and the word is highly grammaticalised. 待考
4. Cháng 嘗 places an action or experience in the past, typically in so far as this past is experienced or witnessed by someone, remarkably often by the speaker himself.
5. Gǔ 古 and gǔ zhě 古者 refer specifically to ancient times and not just generally to the past.
6. Xiàng 鄉 / 曏 / 嚮 refers to the relatively recent past.
7. Nǎng 曩 refers to the somewhat more distant past.
8. Qǐng 頃 refer to the period a short time ago.
9. Gù 故 tends to be used adjectivally to characterise something as being former rather than present, and the meaning is very neatly distinct from gǔ 古 which would characterise something as being old.\
NB: Zuó 昨 refers specifically to something happening a day ago. See YESTERDAY.