# Etymology of the phrase "on tomorrow"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 6, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376 "2003-12-06T14:39:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![UWmite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UWmite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UWmite)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376/1 "2003-12-06T14:39:20Z")

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I recently began teaching in Atlanta, and all my friends and I are baffled by the phrase “on tomorrow,” as in “On tomorrow I will be beating my head into the wall because of the repeated grammatical errors of my coworkers and students.” Varients include “On next week” and “on yesterday”. None of my fellow new teachers had heard this before coming to Atlanta, so it must be pretty localized. Any idea where it came from?

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**Author:** ![12hazel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/919ad9/32.png) [@12hazel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/12hazel)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376/2 "2003-12-06T17:37:38Z")

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Hmmm… must be a local/dialect thing. WAG: I wonder if “on tomorrow” came from “on the morrow,” and the rest (next week, yesterday) followed as parallel constructions.

It’s pretty cool to witness change in a living language, but sometimes the logic can be baffling…

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376/3 "2003-12-06T17:51:56Z")

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My WAG is that it grew from specific days, like “on July 7th” or “on Christmas Eve” to relative days.

Have you heard anyone say “on today”?

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**Author:** ![UWmite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UWmite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UWmite)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376/4 "2003-12-06T18:37:24Z")

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Yeah, **panache** , that’s what I thought too. And yes, “on today” is common as well. I just can’t figure out why it seems to only be present among African Americans living in Atlanta.

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**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376/5 "2003-12-06T18:52:18Z")

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It’s probably of fairly recent vintage. I was raised in Atlanta, and I _never_ heard this usage. In fact, it sounds fairly ludicrous to me.

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-phrase-on-tomorrow/217376/6 "2003-12-06T20:00:40Z")

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I, too, have heard this phrase only from Africo-Americans, but it’s not limited only to Atlanta.