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

• 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.

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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 常識はずれ (じょうしきはずれ, jōshikihazure)
• Korean: 편력하는 (pyeollyeokhaneun)
• Latin: errans (la)
• Polish: błędny (pl)
• Portuguese: errante (pt)
• Russian: заблу́дший (ru) (zablúdšij)
• Spanish: errante

traveling in search of adventure

• Bulgarian: странстващ (bg) (stranstvašt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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 (2016 May 17) “arrant/errant”, in Common Errors in English Usage‎^[2]
• William Safire (2006 January 22) “On Language: Arrant Nonsense”, in New York Times‎^[3]

Anagrams

• Ranter, Ratner, Terran, ranter

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French

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French errant, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin errāns, errāntem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.ʁɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

errant

1. present participle of errer

Adjective

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

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

Further reading

• “errant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• rentra

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) 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

Descendants

• English: errant
• French: errant