I was trying to explain to my kid a slightly complex concept—that we weren’t going to see our friends today, we weren’t going to see them tomorrow, it would be the day after tomorrow when we saw them—when I realized the clunkiness of this formula. The best we can do is the day after tomorrow? It’s fine for a movie title; as shorthand for the concept of two days hence, well, it’s neither short nor handy. Russian has it so much better: poslezaftra. Literally “after tomorrow.” Three syllables, and they roll off the tongue. So, I thought, what would that be in English? Aftermorrow.
My feelings of unique genius didn’t survive an encounter with an internet search engine. (When do they ever?) It turns out not only have others already proposed this coinage, our language already has a term that’s similar but even better: overmorrow.
Let’s bring it back!
