Etymologically
Log in

oberro

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 05:06. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ɔˈbɛr.roː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [oˈbɛr.ro][1]

Forms

oberrō (present infinitive oberrāre, perfect active oberrāvī, supine oberrātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ob- + errō (“to wander”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Horace says a lyre-player who always goes wrong on the same string is laughed at.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is to wander about a place, rove or ramble, often aimlessly: Tacitus has men wander round the tents, Curtius in unknown places, and Pliny the Elder the weasel that roams our houses.[2][4] Lewis & Short call it poetic and post-Augustan prose.[4] The elder Seneca speaks of half-dead herds wandering, and Seneca of air still hovering underground.[2] It is also to get in someone's way, as in Seneca's Phaedra.[2] With oculīs or mentī it is to hover before the eyes or mind: Curtius has the image of a great danger before someone's eyes.[2] Pliny the Younger and later authors have shortened perfect forms such as oberrāsse.[3] Church Latin glosses it wander about.[5]

Timeline

  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a lyre-player going wrong.[2]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of hovering air.[2]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of the weasel in houses.[4]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of wandering round tents.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wander about, rove, ramble; to hover.[2][4][1][5]
  2. To get in the way.[2]
  3. To hover before the eyes or mind.[2]
  4. To go wrong, err.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson