err

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English erren,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French errer (“to go astray, lose one's way; to make a mistake”),^[6][7][8][9] from Latin errō (“to wander, go astray; to be mistaken”).^{[6][4][8][10]} The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the early 12th century both as "to wander, travel" and as "to make a mistake".^[11] The Latin verb goes back to an older *ersāre,^[12][9][5] from Proto-Indo-European *ers- (“to be in motion, wander”).^[6][4][7] It is cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (airzjan, “to lead astray”) and 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌶𐌴𐌹𐍃 (airzeis, “led astray”),^[5][12][3] Old High German irrōn (“to go astray”) and irri (“gone astray, angry”), German irren (“to err”),^[5][3][7] Old Saxon irri (“angry”) and Old English ierre (“straying; angry”);^[3][7][6] in Germanic the notion of anger was taken as a straying from normal composure.^[6][7] Error, erratic and erroneous come from the same Latin verb.^[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To go astray from one's path, and to go wrong in judgement, make a mistake: both in 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[12] Barnhart dates the verb to before 1300^[7] and Etymonline to about 1300.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb already meant both "to wander" and "to be mistaken", and English took over both.^[14][13] Ayto notes that the step from wandering to making mistakes was taken separately in several unrelated word groups of the Indo-European languages.^[13] The literal sense "to roam, wander" appears in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (about 1374) and was obsolete by the end of the 17th century;^[12][8] the Middle English phrase erring sterres, the planets, kept this sense.^[2] Johnson (1755) still put "to wander; to ramble" first, before "to miss the right way" and "to commit errours".^[15] The moral sense, to go astray, to sin, is recorded from about 1315,^[12] and the phrase to err on the side of, to lean too far towards a quality, from 1657.^[12] The proverb "To err is human, to forgive divine" is from Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism (1711).^[16] A noun err, an error or a heresy, was used briefly in 1509–10.^[12]

Timeline

• 1303 – to go astray; to make a mistake, blunder.^[12]
• c. 1315 – to go astray morally, to sin.^[12]
• c. 1374 – to roam, wander (obsolete by 1697).^[12]
• c. 1430 – to miss a mark or aim (rare).^[12]
• 1509 – noun, an error, heresy (obsolete).^[12]
• 1657 – to err on the side of.^[12]
• 1711 – Pope's To err is human, to forgive divine.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a mistake; to be wrong or incorrect: The clerk erred in adding up the bill.^[17][3][12]
2. To stray from what is right or from accepted standards of conduct; to sin.^[17][3][12]
3. err on the side of: to favour one quality or course, perhaps too much, to avoid its opposite: to err on the side of caution.^[17][12]
4. (archaic) To go astray from the proper path.^[3][12]
5. (obsolete, 1374–1697) To wander or roam.^[12][8][15]

Word family

• errability
• errable
• erroneous
• error

Related words

• erratic
• erratum
• errant
• aberration
• inerrant

Usage notes

The traditional pronunciation rhymes with her, but one rhyming with hair has gained ground, perhaps under the influence of error and errant; in the American Heritage usage panel, 56 percent preferred the first and 34 percent the second.^[18] Grammarphobia notes that most Americans now say the second, and that it is also the older one.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ a b Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
19. ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "How do you pronounce “err”?", 23 June 2014