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Errant has a split history. It comes from Anglo-French, a language in which two confusingly similar verbs with identical spellings ("errer") coexisted. One errer meant "to err" and comes from the Latin errare, meaning "to wander" or "to err." The second errer meant "to travel," and traces to the Latin iter, meaning "road" or "journey." Both "errer" homographs contributed to the development of "errant," which not surprisingly has to do with both moving about and being mistaken. A "knight-errant" travels around in search of adventures. Cowboys round up "errant calves." An "errant child" is one who misbehaves. (You might also see "arrant" occasionally - it's a word that originated as an alteration of "errant" and that usually means "extreme" or "shameless.")
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Examples of errant in a Sentence
William Melhado, Sacramento Bee, 6 Feb. 2025
An errant hammer throw killed a spectator at a Colorado track and field meet.
—Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 2 Feb. 2025
Family and friends are mourning the death of a man who was hit by an errant weight at his son's high school athletic event in Colorado.
—Anna Lazarus Caplan, People.com, 28 Jan. 2025
Western travelers might think twice before making Rossiya their choice for a maiden 747 flight, because of difficulties traveling to Moscow, the danger of errant missiles like the ones that destroyed an Embraer ERJ-190 operated by Azerbaijani Air in December, and global sanctions on Russia.
—Michael Goldstein, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Errant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/errant. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.
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errant
adjective
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