Language poll!

[conuly]

Poll #25428 "The other day"

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 116

View Respondents

In your speech, can "the other day" be yesterday?

View Answers

Yes
34 (29.3%)

No
47 (40.5%)

Sometimes
28 (24.1%)

I'm not sure
7 (6.0%)

Comments

[fuzzyred]

I'd say it generally isn't for me, but I don't have the best memory and sometimes my time sense goes whacky, so I might say "the other day" and in fact mean "yeasterday."

[pauamma]

Likewise.

[fred_mouse]

Thirded. I wouldn't use it to mean yesterday, except when I have no clue as to when something actually happened.

[cellio]

This is the exact reason I said "sometimes". It can be yesterday if it's unintentional, a memory failure. It can't be if you know you're talking about yesterday when you say it.

[dine]

not usually, but I admit to sometimes using it when I want to be a bit vague about just when something occurred

[alexseanchai]

I made pasta carbonara the other day. I am moderately confident this was yesterday, not the day before, but I can't prove it without checking timestamps in the household chat.

[crystalpyramid]

I put yes, however in my speech "last year" is often "last month".

[pensnest]

It *can* be, but it shouldn't be. Yesterday is yesterday, the other day is 'before yesterday'. But I wouldn't hound anyone for being vague about when something happened.

[troisoiseaux]

Lately I've found myself using "the other day" to mean "yesterday" or even "this morning," but that's more of a pandemic-induced time-wonkiness problem than a "this is what words mean" problem...

[redbird]

I wouldn't say that if I remembered clearly that it was yesterday, but I wouldn't be astonished or feel misled if someone else said "the other day" and it became clear that they meant "yesterday."

[semperfiona]

I use and understand it to mean 'some time in the recent past but I don't recall clearly exactly when'. This is more and more common for me with the calendar-stretchiness that has come with the pandemic and generally with aging.

[firecat]

Informally yes, but not for any communication where someone’s going to expect accuracy or check my work.

[larryhammer]

"The other day" is supposed to be indefinite past earlier than yesterday, but sometimes I lose track of exact times. Especially of late.

[readerjane]

"The other day" is vague, and can mean any day in the recent past, including yesterday.

When I use it, it usually means, "I have many memories of having collected the mail, but no idea whatsoever whether the most recent of those memories is from yesterday or from four days ago."

[melannen]

Usually not, but it can be if I don't remember, or if being specific about the day would actually reduce clarity.

[maju]

The other day is longer ago than yesterday, but usually not more than a couple of weeks ago.

[archersangel]

no. "the other day" is the day or two before yesterday.

[sallymn]

Usually no, it needs to be at least two days ago, but given my rather less than impressive sense of time anyway, I can't be absolutely sure that what I remember from the other day... wasn't yesterday. Or vice versa.

[darkoshi]

Not unless I (or whoever is speaking) thinks it was more than a day ago, when it actually wasn't. There are some days where even what happened that same morning seems more than a day ago.
Or I suppose, if as someone else said, I wanted to be vague as to when something happened, on purpose. So I suppose I should change my answer to the poll now...

[conuly]

I only wish I could change the poll - I thought the implication of "no" was that if you did it, it meant you were being a little dishonest.

[darkoshi]

If I purposefully used "other day" about yesterday to be vague, I wouldn't consider myself to be lying. So that implies I feel it does encompass yesterday, even though I wouldn't normally use it that way. I suppose normally I feel it is better to be more precise.

Or maybe it implies that I don't want to admit to myself when I'm lying LOL

[marahmarie]

On second thought, I'll throw an exception to my reply below for "to be vague" as I hadn't thought of that when I replied, but this would be me being exceptionally shady. Can't say it never happened/s, but it's rare.

[marahmarie]

It can absolutely never be yesterday so if someone starts or persists with saying "the other day" when they mean that I'll correct them even at the risk of interrupting and/or distracting the person and/or ruining and/or ending the conversation because I don't care, it bothers me that much. The other day was more than one day ago and if it wasn't then either say "yesterday" or admit you can't remember exactly which day it was, unless I *know* it was yesterday, in which case just stop. It drives me wild.