מָחֳרָתַיִם (mochoratayim) — the day after tomorrow
Etymology
The word מָחֳרָתַיִם is formed from מָחֳרָת (the next day, the morrow) with the dual suffix -ַיִם, literally "a double tomorrow" or "the tomorrow of tomorrow." Ze'ev Yaavetz, one of the most prolific and underappreciated early coiners of Modern Hebrew, found it in a printed edition of Midrash Tehillim (the Psalms Midrash, also known as Shocher Tov): "He said to them: I have plowing to do today and tomorrow, but wait for me until I have plowed, and on mochoratayim we will go together." However, this passage does not appear in the early manuscripts of the midrash — the word appears to have entered the printed text at a later stage, perhaps as a scribal addition. The original manuscripts simply say "tomorrow" where the printed edition has "mochoratayim."
Yaavetz was a remarkable figure in the early Hebrew revival. He arrived in Palestine from the Russian imperial town of Koln (now in Poland) in 1887 at age 40, settled first in Yehud, then became rabbi and school principal in Zichron Ya'akov. After a dispute with the estate administrator Eliyahu Scheid — rumored to have had a romantic relationship with the school's new director Matilda Kauffman — Yaavetz was dismissed when he refused to work under her authority. He settled in Jerusalem and turned to publishing literary anthologies under rotating names (HaAretz, MiYerushalayim, Pri HaAretz, Gaon HaAretz, MiTzion), using them to propagate his lexical coinages — since he could not obtain a license for a regular newspaper.
In the second volume of HaAretz (1891), Yaavetz introduced מָחֳרָתַיִם alongside several other coinages that would become standard Modern Hebrew, among them: חִסָּכוֹן (savings, from the root ח.ס.כ), אֹפִי (character, temperament, drawn from the Jerusalem Talmud; itself possibly from Greek euphyia), צַוָּרוֹן (collar, from שיר השירים), and מַגָּף (boot, from the Mishna). The following years saw him coin מַנְגָּנוֹן (mechanism, 1892), כָּחֹל (blue, the color), יְקוּם (the universe/cosmos, 1893), and dozens of others. Many of his coinages are now so embedded in Hebrew that their origin has been forgotten.
Key Quotes
"אמר להן יש לי לחרוש היום ומחר אבל המתינו לי עד שאחרוש ולמחרתים נלך ביחד" — Midrash Tehillim, chapter 12 (printed edition; absent from early manuscripts)
Timeline
- Medieval period: Midrash Tehillim printed editions include the word מָחֳרָתַיִם (absent from early manuscripts)
- 1887: Ze'ev Yaavetz arrives in Palestine; begins publishing literary anthologies
- 1891: Yaavetz introduces מָחֳרָתַיִם in HaAretz vol. 2, alongside אֹפִי, צַוָּרוֹן, תּוֹבָר, מַגָּף, and others
- 1892: Pri HaAretz coins מְרֻשָּׁל (slack/slovenly), מַנְגָּנוֹן (mechanism), תְּרֵיסָר (a dozen)
- 1893: Gaon HaAretz coins יְקוּם (universe/cosmos)
- 1894: Coins בִּטְנָה (lining of a garment), שַׁעֲוָנִית (oilcloth), שְׁנָתוֹת (graduation marks on measuring tools)
- Present: מָחֳרָתַיִם in standard use as "the day after tomorrow"
Related Words
- מָחָר — tomorrow; the base form
- מָחֳרָת — the next day/the morrow; the form from which מָחֳרָתַיִם is built
- אֹפִי — character, temperament; coined by Yaavetz in the same volume
- מַגָּף — boot; coined by Yaavetz in the same volume (from Mishna Shabbat 6:2)
- יְקוּם — universe, cosmos; another Yaavetz coinage (1893)
- מַנְגָּנוֹן — mechanism; Yaavetz coinage (1892)