astray

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English astrai, also o stray and astrayey,^[2][3][4] probably borrowed from Old French estraié (“strayed”), the past participle of estraier (“to stray, roam about without a master”),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} in an Anglo-Norman form, which Hoad and Dictionary.com reconstruct as *astraié.^{[8][9][10][11]} According to the OED and Barnhart, the French past participle lost its final -é (first in the north), was used as a predicative adjective and then as an adverb, and was confused with words like afloat, asleep and aloft.^[4][3] Because it was often written “o stray” or “on stray” in the 14th century, it was taken to be the prefix a- with the noun stray,^[4][3] as Johnson and Klein still explain it;^[12][13] but no early noun stray in that use has been found.^[4][3] Weekley thought the spelling “on stray” arose by analogy with other English phrases beginning with “on” or “a-”.^[14] The Old French verb is traced by the OED to Vulgar Latin *extrāvagō, from extrā (“out of bounds”) and vagor (“to wander”),^[4][10][11] the source of extravagant;^[4] Hoad instead derives it from Old French estree (“road”), from Late Latin strāta, the source of street,^[8][7] a view the OED rejects on phonological grounds.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of cattle, away from home, lost, wandering: early 14th century in Etymonline.^[7] Barnhart finds the past participle astraied about 1300 and astrai, o stray before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[3] The OED's first record of the sense "out of the right way, wandering" is Sir Ferumbras, about 1380.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was used of cattle straying from their owner, of a horse wandering without its rider, and of warriors out of formation.^[2] Etymonline dates the figurative use to the late 14th century;^[7] the Middle English Dictionary records conduct "deviating from what is proper" from 1449,^[2] and the OED's sense "away from the right; in or into error or evil" is first found in Coverdale's Bible of 1535.^[4][15] Gower used a verb astray, to wander or err, recorded from 1393 to 1608,^[4][15] and the Promptorium Parvulorum (1440) has a noun astray, a stray animal.^[4][2] As an adjective the simple stray later took its place, as live did for alive.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the adverb as "out of the right way", quoting Spenser's Faerie Queene.^[12] The phrase go astray also came to mean to be lost or mislaid.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – past participle astraied, strayed.^[3]
• before 1325 – astrai, o stray, in the Cursor Mundi.^[3] Etymonline dates it to the early 14th century, of cattle.^[7]
• c. 1380 – out of the right way, wandering.^[4][15]
• 1393 – verb astray, to wander, to err (until 1608).^[4]
• 1440 – noun astray, a stray animal.^[4][2]
• 1449 – of conduct, deviating from what is proper.^[2]
• 1535 – away from the right; into error or evil.^[4][15]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Off the right path or away from the intended direction: The walkers went astray in the mist.^[16][6][4]
2. Into error or wrongdoing: He claimed that older friends had led him astray.^[16][6][10]
3. Away from familiar surroundings; lost or wandering.^[6][10]
4. go astray: to be lost or mislaid: Two of the letters went astray in the post.^[10][16]

Adjective

1. Following the noun or verb: wrong, mistaken: Her estimate was well astray.^[6][16]

Related words

• stray
• estray
• extravagant
• street

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c d Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins