errand

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English erende, also erande and ernde,^[2][1][3][4] inherited from Old English ǣrende (“message, mission”),^{[5][6][7][8][9]} from Proto-West Germanic *ārundī (“message, errand”).^[1] It is cognate with Old Frisian ērende, Old Saxon ārundi and Old High German ārunti,^{[4][10][8][11]} and less clearly with Old Norse eyrindi and erendi,^[5][10][8] Danish ærinde and Swedish ärende.^[6][12][13] Its further origin is unknown.^[10][12][6] It has long been connected with Old English ār (“messenger”), Old Norse árr and Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌿𐍃 (airus, “messenger”),^{[5][14][8][4][15]} but the OED finds the forms hard to reconcile with that word,^[5] and Skeat thought the connection hardly possible.^[16] Kroonen notes that the Old English, Old Saxon and Old High German forms point to a Proto-Germanic form with a long *ē, the Norse ones to one with *a; he reconstructs Proto-Germanic *arundja- and thinks the link with the word for messenger cannot be shown.^[17] Etymonline gives *airundija-.^[6] Ayto stresses that it has no connection with err and error.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, a message or mission, and also an answer, news or tidings;^[6][9] the OED's first record is in the Old English translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History.^[5] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 725, and the Middle English ernde to probably before 1200.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word was used of important missions,^[6][15] as in Old English ærendgast (“angel”), literally a spirit sent with a message, and ærendraca (“ambassador”).^[6][15] The sense "message to be passed on" lasted until the 18th century:^[5][12] Ayto quotes Coverdale's 1535 Bible, "So they told him the errand of the men of Jabesh", where the Authorized Version has tidings.^[12] From the 13th century the word also meant the business on which one is sent, and more widely the purpose of a journey.^[5][12] The modern sense, a short trip to carry a message, collect goods or do a small task, is first recorded in 1642,^[5][4][6] and Weekley dates the current sense to the 17th century.^[15] Johnson (1755) noted that the word was then used mostly in familiar language.^[18] The older sense of a weighty mission still appears now and then,^[4] but the OED calls it archaic, poetic or rhetorical.^[5] In American English the word has come to suggest shopping in particular.^[12]

Timeline

• Old English – a message to be repeated to someone else (obsolete by 1754).^[5]
• Old English – a mission, embassy or expedition (now archaic).^[5]
• c. 1200 – a petition or prayer presented through another, as through the Virgin Mary (obsolete by 1849).^[5]
• c. 1225 – the business on which one is sent; the object of a journey.^[5]
• c. 1400 – to make an errand, to make a short trip, or to find a pretext for going.^[5]
• 1642 – a short journey to take a message, collect goods or do a small task, as in to run errands.^[5][4] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1640s.^[6]
• 1705 – fool's errand.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short trip made to deliver or fetch something or to do a small task: He ran a few errands for his neighbour before lunch.^[19][14][5]
2. The purpose or object of such a trip; the task itself.^[19][5]
3. fool's errand: a pointless task or journey that cannot succeed.^[5][1]
4. (archaic) A mission or expedition undertaken for an important purpose.^[5][4]
5. (obsolete, Old English–1754) A message entrusted to someone to deliver by word of mouth.^[5][10][14]

Word family

• fool's errand

Related words

• errand boy
• err
• error

Usage notes

In the dialects of Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Worcestershire people said that someone was going of an errand, and spellings such as arrand and arrant show a local pronunciation.^[20] In Scotland and Northumberland once errand meant a journey made for one special purpose.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b c d e f g Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)