errar

Forms

errar (first-person singular present erro, first-person singular preterite errei, past participle errado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin errō (“to wander, to stray; to be mistaken”), written Old Galician-Portuguese errar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss notes that the figurative sense “to make a mistake” had already grown in Latin out of “to wander, to leave the road”.^[2]

The same Latin word is Galician errar, Spanish errar, Catalan errar, French errer and Italian errare.^[5][1] For the sense “to wander”, Nascentes reports Clédat's derivation from a popular Latin *iterō, from iter (“road”).^[6]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from *ersāje-, a verb formed on a noun of Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers- meaning “erring, error”, and compares 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌶𐌴𐌹𐍃 (airzeis, “astray, misled”), irren (“to be mistaken”) and an Armenian verb meaning “to be restless”.^[7][8] Wiktionary gives the same root and notes Nussbaum's alternative analysis.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is common in the 13th-century cantigas, where it means “to commit a fault, to fail”: D. Dinis writes e nunca vos errei “and I never wronged you”, and Afonso X Pois el agora tam muit' erra “since he now does so much wrong”.^[9][10] In the cantigas d'amigo errar a alguém is to fail in one's duty to someone, above all a lover to his beloved.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Nascentes explains the change of meaning: a person who has lost the road wanders until finding the right way again, hence “to go wrong”.^[4] Medieval texts also use the verb for losing one's way (errou o camino in the Crónica Troiana) and for offending or wronging someone, a sense Old Spanish shared.^[10][11][5] Bluteau (1712) puts the physical sense first, “to go from one place to another”, beside errar o tiro “to miss the shot”;^[12][13] Morais (1789) still has errar a alguém “to offend someone” from the classical authors.^[12][13] Houaiss and Aurélio now label that sense obsolete, while “to make a mistake” and “to miss” are the everyday ones and “to wander” is literary.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the cantigas.^[2][3][9]
• 13th century – the cantigas d'amigo use errar a alguém “to wrong someone”.^[10]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary gives Errar with the Latin erro.^[15]
• 1572 – first record of errante.^[3]
• 1712 – Bluteau gives “to wander” and errar o tiro.^[12]
• 1789 – Morais records errar a alguém “to offend someone”.^[13]
• 1813 – first record of erradio.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and intransitive) To make a mistake (in), to be wrong: Errei duas contas no exame.^[2][14][1]
2. (transitive) To miss, to fail to hit: errar o alvo.^[2][14][1]
3. (transitive) To do something wrongly: errar um passo de dança.^[16][1]
4. (intransitive) To wander, to roam without a fixed course;^[2][14][1] (transitive) to wander through: Errou pelas ruas a noite toda.^[2][14][1]
5. (intransitive) To do wrong, to fall into fault or sin.^[2][17]
6. (obsolete) To wrong, to offend (someone).^[2][14]
7. (intransitive, literary) To spread or float about: Um perfume errava pela sala.^[2][14]

Word family

• erro
• errado
• errada
• erradio

Related words

• errante
• erróneo
• errata
• errático
• errabundo
• Latin errō

Usage notes

Set phrases include errar o alvo “to fail in one's aim” and errar a vocação “to follow the wrong calling”.^[17][16] In Rio Grande do Sul errar o pealo (literally “to miss the lasso throw”) means to fail in an undertaking.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. errar
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. errar
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. errar
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2904
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 182
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. errō
8. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 33
9. ^ a b Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. errar
10. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. errar
11. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 659
12. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. errar
13. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 525
14. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. errar
15. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. errar
16. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. errar
17. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. errar
18. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. errar