errant
[er-uh nt]
- deviating from the regular or proper course; erring; straying.
- journeying or traveling, as a medieval knight in quest of adventure; roving adventurously.
- moving in an aimless or lightly changing manner: an errant breeze.
Origin of errant
1300–50; Middle English erraunt < Middle French, Old French errant, present participle of errer, edrer to travel < Vulgar Latin *iterāre to journey, for Late Latin itinerārī, derivative of iter, stem itiner- journey (see itinerary); confused with Middle French errant, present participle of errer to err
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for errant
Contemporary Examples
Some things have changed a lot since 1984 when the errant Father Buck wrote to his young love interest.
The errant flashes of light in your brain depicting this possibility are strong enough to make you wince and want to cry.
Whatever You Do Someone Will Die. A Short Story About Impossible Choices in IraqNathan Bradley Bethea
August 31, 2014
Gone were the ugly memories of errant throws to the wrong bases or ill-advised cutoffs.
There was a cruel irony in him being killed from above by an errant bomb dropped by an American B-1 bomber.
It took searchers almost two weeks to find the errant missile.
Historical Examples
"True, sir," said I in perfunctory acknowledgment, but with errant thoughts.
Simon DaleAnthony Hope
Usually, I have discovered the errant one—with the help of my guards, of course.
MillenniumEverett B. Cole
Their figures, unfixed in the abyss, have been shifted like errant sands of Earth.
The Masque of the ElementsHerman Scheffauer
Burns smiled as a king might upon a young knight seeking an errant.
The Eagle's HeartHamlin Garland
Occasionally some flame would come in pursuit of her errant swain.
Sons and LoversDavid Herbert Lawrence
errant
- archaic, or literary wandering in search of adventure
- erring or straying from the right course or accepted standards
Word Origin
C14: from Old French: journeying, from Vulgar Latin iterāre (unattested), from Latin iter journey; influenced by Latin errāre to err
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for errant
adj.
mid-14c., "travelling, roving," from Anglo-French erraunt, from two Old French words that were confused even before they reached English: 1. Old French errant, present participle of errer "to travel or wander," from Late Latin iterare, from Latin iter "journey, way," from root of ire "to go" (see ion); 2. Old French errant, past participle of errer (see err). The senses fused in English 14c., but much of the sense of the latter since has gone with arrant.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper