errant

English

Alternative forms

• erraunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English erraunt, from Anglo-Norman erraunt, from Old French errant, from Latin errans (“wandering”). Doublet of arrant.

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛɹənt/
• Homophone: arrant (in accents with the Mary–marry–merry merger)

Adjective

errant (comparative more errant, superlative most errant)

1. Straying from the proper course or standard, or outside established limits.
   • 1669, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica‎^[1], page 244:

     In that there are just seven Planets or errant Stars in the lower Orbs of heaven: but it is now demonstrable unto sense, that there are many more

2. Wandering; roving around.
3. Prone to making errors; misbehaved.

   We ran down the street in pursuit of the errant dog.

4. (proscribed) Utter, complete (negative); arrant.
   • 1692 [1603], Ben Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy‎^[2], page 243:

     Thy company, if I slept not very well / A nights, would make me an errant fool […]

Usage notes

Sometimes arrant (“utter, complete”) is considered simply an alternative spelling and pronunciation of errant, though most authorities distinguish them, reserving errant to mean “wandering” and using it after the noun it modifies, notably in “knight errant”, while using arrant to mean “utter”, in a negative sense, and before the noun it modifies, notably in “arrant knaves”.

Etymologically, arrant arose as a variant of errant, but the meanings have long since diverged. Both terms are primarily used in set phrases (which may be considered cliché) and, since they are easily confused, some authorities suggest against using either.

Synonyms

• (utter, complete): arrant (generally distinguished; see usage)

Derived terms

• knight-errant
• arrant

Translations

straying from the proper course or standard

• Bulgarian: блуждаещ (bg) (bluždaešt)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 迷失 (zh) (mishi)

• Dutch: dolend (nl)
• French: errant (fr)
• German: errant (de)
• Greek: περιπλανώμενος (el) (periplanómenos)
• Italian: errante (it)

• Japanese: 常識はずれ (じょうしきはずれ, jōshikihazure)
• Korean: 편력하는 (pyeollyeokhaneun)
• Latin: errans
• Polish: błędny (pl)
• Portuguese: errante (pt)
• Russian: заблу́дший (ru) (zablúdšij)
• Spanish: errante

traveling in search of adventure

• Bulgarian: странстващ (bg) (stranstvašt)

• Russian: стра́нствующий (ru) (stránstvujuščij), блужда́ющий (ru) (bluždájuščij)

Noun

errant (plural errants)

1. A knight-errant.

References

• “errant” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• Paul Brians (May 17, 2016), “arrant/errant”, in Common Errors in English Usage‎^[3]
• William Safire (January 22, 2006), “On Language: Arrant Nonsense”, in New York Times‎^[4]
• “errant, arrant”, in Merriam–Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage‎^[5], 1995, page 406

Anagrams

• Ranter, Ratner, Terran, ranter

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French

Etymology

From Old French errant, from Latin errāns, errāntem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.ʁɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

errant

1. present participle of errer

Adjective

errant (feminine singular errante, masculine plural errants, feminine plural errantes)

1. wandering, stray
2. errant (clarification of this definition is needed)

Further reading

• “errant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• rentra

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Latin

Verb

errant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of errō

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Old French

Etymology

Present participle of errer (“to wander”), from Latin iterō (“I travel; I voyage”) rather than from errō, which is the ancestor of the other etymology of error (“to err; to make an error”).

Adjective

errant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular errant or errante)

1. wandering; nomadic
   • 12th century CE, Thomas de Kent, 'Roman de toute chevalerie' [Roman of all chivalry], translation of Alexander romance; republished as B. Foster, with the assistance of I. Short, editor, 'The Anglo-Norman 'Alexander'​', London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1976, ANTS 29-31 (1976), and 32-33 (1977):

     si est un pople qe n’est mie erranz; Ja n'istra de son regne

     If it's a people that is not nomadic, it will never leave his kingdom

Descendants

• English: errant
• French: errant