errare

Forms

errare (first-person singular present èrro, first-person singular past historic errài, past participle erràto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin errāre (“to wander; to go astray, be mistaken”).^[2][3][1][4] Its learned or popular status is disputed: DELI and Zingarelli call it learned.^[5][6] The LEI treats every Italian sense except errata corrige as popular, as Meyer-Lübke, Wartburg, Corominas and the DEI do, while Wagner and Arquint took the forms with /rr/ in Sardinian, Romansh and Italo-Romance for learned; the keeping of initial /e/ cannot settle it.^[4] The verb survives in nearly all the Romance languages but not in Romanian: French errer, Occitan errar, Catalan errar, Spanish errar, Portuguese errar and Romansh errar.^[2][7][4]

The Latin verb comes from Proto-Italic *ersāje-, a verb from a noun of Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers-, perhaps the root meaning “to flow”.^[8] Its Germanic relatives are Old High German irrōn (“to wander, err”) and German irren.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the sense “to fall into error” to the early 13th century, in the poet Mazzeo di Ricco, and the sense “to wander aimlessly” to Bono Giamboni, before 1292.^[5] The TLIO's first records are Ugo di Perso of Cremona and Rinaldo d'Aquino, both of the first half of the 13th century.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had the whole range: moving about without a goal, the motion of the heavenly bodies, straying from a road or from what is right, the confusion of love, and mistaking what is real or departing from a rule.^[9] In Bartolomeo da San Concordio the Trojans came to Italy errando per mare “wandering by sea”.^[10] The two main lines, “wander” and “err”, are both present from the start and both remain in use.^[5][11]

Several derivatives come from the Latin family: errore (before 1292), erroneo (1304–1308, Dante) and errabondo (14th century).^[5] Geology gave the phrase massi erratici “erratic boulders”, probably a calque on French blocs erratiques, recorded in 1822;^[5] Targioni Tozzetti had called them pietre erranti in 1769.^[5] The proverb errare è umano, perseverare è diabolico renders a Latin saying of uncertain source.^[12][13]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Mazzeo di Ricco uses errare for “to be mistaken”.^[5]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for “to wander”.^[5]
• Late 13th century – Errante appears in the Novellino.^[5]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses erroneo.^[5]
• c. 1319 – Dante uses errare for “to wander”.^[14]
• Before 1348 – Iacopo Alighieri uses erratico.^[5]
• 1769 – Targioni Tozzetti calls erratic boulders pietre erranti.^[5]
• 1822 – Scipione Breislak uses massi erratici.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wander, roam without a goal; also figurative, of the gaze or the mind: Errammo a lungo tra le colline.^[3][11][6]
2. (literary) To stray, depart from the right path or from the truth.^[3][11][6]
3. To be mistaken, make a mistake; in a moral sense, to sin: Se non erro, è partito ieri.^[3][11][15]
4. (literary, transitive) To wander through a place; to miss (a road or a blow).^[11][6][12]

Word family

• errabondo
• errante
• erratico
• errato
• erroneo
• errore
• erranza
• erramento
• erro

Related words

• Latin errō
• French errer

Usage notes

Common phrases are se non erro and se non vado errato “if I am not mistaken”, and the proverb errare è umano.^[11][13] Nocentini takes the adjective errante from French errant.^[2] DEI gives a different origin to cavaliere errante and ebreo errante.^[7] Körting separates a French errer from Latin iterare.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 685
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1525
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 686
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh