Etymologically
Log in

aberro

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 21:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [aˈbɛr.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [aˈbɛr.ro][1]

Forms

aberrō (present infinitive aberrāre, perfect active aberrāvī, supine aberrātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- (“away”) + errō (“to wander”).[2][1] De Vaan traces errō to Proto-Italic *ers-āje-, a denominal verb "to be restless", and Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers-o/h₂- (“erring, error”), perhaps from the root *h₁ers- "to flow"; he compares Old High German irren (“to be mistaken; lead astray”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first: in the prologue of the Menaechmi a boy strays from his father in a crowd.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

It is to wander away or get lost: Livy uses it of a bull that had strayed from the herd and of ships leaving their formation.[4][2] Figuratively it is to digress, as when Cicero says that his mind wanders from the point, worried by greater cares, and to miss one's aim or depart from a standard.[2] From this it means to go wrong or be mistaken: Cicero fears that his guess is wrong.[2] Cicero also uses it of forgetting grief for a while: writing all day brings him no relief, but it takes his mind off it.[2] Seneca says that one cannot get away from one's own fortune.[2] It survives in Sardinian aerrare.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a boy lost in a crowd.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of digressing, of being mistaken and of forgetting grief.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of a stray bull and of ships.[4][2][6]
  • 1798 – English aberrant is formed from its present participle.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wander away, stray, get lost.[2][4][8][1]
  2. To wander from one's subject, digress.[2][1]
  3. To stray from one's purpose; to depart or differ from a standard; to disagree.[2][1]
  4. To go wrong, be mistaken, err.[2][1]
  5. To get away from something; to take one's mind off grief.[2][1]

Word family

  • aberrātiō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson