erratum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin errātum (“an error”),^[2][3][4][5] the neuter past participle, used as a noun, of errō (“to wander, stray; to err”),^[2][6][4][7] the source of err.^[3][4] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the verb to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ers-.^[6] The plural is errata.^[3][4][5] An anglicized form, errate, was used earlier, but is obsolete.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An error in writing or printing, especially one noted in a list of corrections added to a printed book: 1589, in the Martin Marprelate tract Epitome.^[2][9][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its printers' sense.^[2][4] The plural errata, a list of corrections attached to a book, is recorded from the 1580s, and by Merriam-Webster from 1573, earlier than the singular.^[4][9] In the 17th and 18th centuries errata was often given a further plural ending, and in 1635 it is first found treated as a singular noun meaning "a list of errata", with a plural erratas.^[2] Franklin used it in a transferred sense in his Autobiography, written before 1790.^[2] Today the word is also used of a correction published in a later issue of a journal.^[8]

Timeline

• 1589 – an error in writing or printing, noted in a list of corrections.^[2][9][3]
• 1635 – errata used as a singular noun, a list of errata.^[2]
• before 1790 – in transferred use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An error in something written or printed, especially one listed with its correction in a book or in a later issue of a journal: The erratum on page twelve gives the wrong year.^[5][6][8]
2. A corrigendum, a correction of such an error.^[5][9]

Related words

• err
• error
• errant
• erratic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster