Errant a. (sb.)

Also 4–5 erraunt(e, errawnt(e, 7 errand. See also ARRANT. [a. Fr. errant, originally two distinct words, which, however, were to some extent confused in Fr. In the senses represented by branch I it is pr. pple. of OF. errer (pr. t. oirre), also written esrer, earlier edrer:—vulgar L. iterāre (= literary late L. itinerāre, -āri) to journey, travel, f. iter journey. In the senses represented by branch III it is ad. L. errant-em pr. pple. of errāre (Fr. errer, of learned origin) to stray, wander, ERR. The primary notion in branch II is uncertain; it seems natural to interpret thief errant as ‘vagrant’ thief, and so to refer it to errare; but if Romanic scholars be right in referring juif errant (see 3) to iterāre, this derivation may be correct here; or perh. the two words were already confused when the phrase arose.]

  I.  Itinerant, travelling.

  A.  adj.

  1.  [after Fr. chevalier errant; cf. ‘ensemble oirrent li chevalier’ quoted in Godef.] Said of knights who travelled about in quest of adventure. See KNIGHT-ERRANT.

[c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 810. Knyȝt erraunt.]

1470.  Malory, Arthur, IV. xii. 134. Here maye ye see what auentures befallen oftyme of erraunte knyghtes.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., V. vi. 6. Now she deuiz’d, amongst the warlike rout … to seeke her errant Knight.

1629.  Massinger, Picture, III. v. (1630), H i b. I haue read the table Or errant knighthood.

1663.  Butler, Hud., I. I. 2.

1813.  Scott, Trierm., I. x. He journey’d like errant knight the while.

  b.  transf. (often as pr. pple.): Travelling, roaming (in quest of adventure, or like a knight-errant). poet. or quasi-arch.

a. 1634[?].  Chapman & Shirley, Ball, IV. We bee no Ladies errant.

1805.  Wordsw., Prelude, III. (1850), 466. Boys and youths Forsook their homes … errant in the quest Of Patron.

1834.  Sir H. Taylor, Artevelde, II. V. iii. (1849), 256. Errant for geste and enterprise.

1858.  Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, I. 289. Thinking of that ship, or of the sons of other mothers who were errant in her.

1858.  Sat. Rev., V. 61/2. That same lady-errant who [etc.].

  c.  That is in the spirit of a knight-errant; also, with notion of 9, erratic, ‘quixotic.’

1822.  B. Cornwall, Ep. to Sir J. Lawrence, in Misc. Poems. With pleasure which rewards mine errant pains.

1874.  T. Hardy, Far fr. Madding Crowd, I. xxviii. 306. Her temerity in such an errant undertaking.

  † 2.  Pawn errant [OF. paonnet errant (Rom. Rose)]: in chess, a travelling pawn, one that has been advanced from its original square.

c. 1369.  Chaucer, Dethe Blaunche, 661. Fortune seyde … ‘mate’ in mid pointe of the chekkere With a powne erraunt.

  † 3.  Errant Jew [Fr. juif errant]: the ‘Wandering Jew’; in quot. transf.

a. 1400[?].  Morte Arth., 2895. Thus es þe geante for-juste, that errawnte Iewe.

  † 4.  In the designations of certain English legal functionaries: bailiff-errant (see BAILIFF 4) [AF. baillif errant, 14 Edw. III., st. 1. c. 9]; justice-errant [AF. justice-erraunt, Britton c. 1290; in Anglo-Lat. always justiciarius itinerans], a justice who travels on circuit.

1502.  Arnolde, Chron. (1811), 3. Our lord the Kynge … shall not assigne Justicis wythin the cite … other than Justicis errauntis to the tour of London [etc.].

1574.  trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 105 a. The original and the processe were sente beefore Justices errantes, where the parties came.

1641.  Termes de la Ley, 141. Justices that goe circuit, and Bailiffes at large … are therefore called Justices Errants and Bailiffes Errants.

  5.  Said gen. of itinerant functionaries, offices or jurisdictions.

1638.  Penit. Conf., ix. (1657), 292. Whether every errant Priest is so furnished, that comes unto them in that name?

1874.  Helps, Soc. Press., iv. 60. All the functionaries of government were more errant.

1887.  Gore, in Expositor, June, 417. We find … side by side with … the local ministry of Bishops and Deacons, a still general or errant ministry.

  B.  sb. A knight-errant; one who travels in the manner or spirit of a knight-errant.

a. 1643.  W. Cartwright, Lady Errant, IV. i. (1651), 50. Truth is the essence of our Order, we Who are errants cannot deceive and be.

1689.  Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 308. He [Isaac Vossius] was invited thither [to Sweden] … by the heroic and royal errant.

1811.  Shelley, in Hogg, Life, I. 414. If we were errants, you should have the tilting all to yourself.

  II.  In senses of ARRANT 2–6.

  † 6.  In phrase thief errant, errant (arrant) thief: in Chaucer, the leader of a band of robbers; subsequently, a notorious, ‘common’ thief. Obs. exc. in form ARRANT.

c. 1386–1822.  [see ARRANT 2].

  † 7.  Used as an intensive with sbs. of reproachful sense: Thoroughgoing, ‘unmitigated’: see ARRANT 3, 3 b.

1393–1538.  [see ARRANT 3].

1619.  W. Whately, Gods Husb., i. (1622), 76. Thou art an errand grosse hypocrite.

1719.  [see ARRANT 3].

a. 1720.  Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), II. 131. Doing a thing in one Parliament, and ordering it to be no precedent to another, is an errant bull.

1776.  [see ARRANT 3 b].

1840.  Smart says that errant is ‘often wrongly used for arrant.’

  † 8.  Without opprobrious sense: Thorough, downright, absolute, unquestionable. Obs.

1644.  Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 63. Protestants and professors, who live and dye in as errant and implicit faith, as any lay Papist of Loretto.

c. 1698.  Locke, Cond. Underst. (1781), 20. A country gentleman who … can away with no company whose discourse goes beyond what claret and dissoluteness inspire. To such a one truly an ordinary coffee-house gleaner is an errant statesman.

1703.  Mrs. Centlivre, Love’s Contriv., V. 61. I shall become as errant a Husband as you’d wish.

1710.  Cromwell, Lett., 5 Nov., in Pope’s Wks., V. 99. He is so errant a whig, that he strains even beyond his author, in his passion for liberty.

  † b.  as pred. ? Unquestionable.

1653.  Hales, Brevis Disquisitio, in Phenix (1708), II. 333. Unless we take that for errant which is in question … Whether the Pope be the infallible Judg of Controversies.

  III.  Straying, wandering, erring.

  9.  Astray, wandering, roving; straying from the proper course or place; having no fixed course.

  (In first quot. used as a mere pple.)

14[?].  Circumcision, in Tundale’s Vis. (1843), 97. To bryng the lost schepe ageyn … That was erraunt ydyl and in vayne.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., III. viii. 6. A shady glade … to her reveald By errant Sprights, but from all men conceald.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 9. As knots … Infect the sound Pine, and diuerts his Graine Tortiue and erant from his course of growth.

a. 1720.  Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), II. 7. The Lord Rochester at the place appointed, who … brought an errant life-guard man.

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xix. When he has seen the errant damsel safe home, it will be time enough to claim his reward.

1861.  Temple & Trevor, Tannhäuser, 21. With errant foot He wander’d on to Hörsel.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. vi. With an errant motion of his hands as if he could have torn himself.

  † b.  Said of the planets (L. stellæ errantes = Gr. ἀστέρες πλανῆται) as opposed to the fixed stars. Obs.

1616.  R. C., Times’ Whis., 146. Astronomers that can foretell eventes … By errant planettes & by fixèd starres.

1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. xii. 210. There are just seven Planets or errant Starres in the lower orbs of heaven.

1646.  G. Daniel, Poems, Wks. 1878, I. 17. Tis but her Errant motion; Hee, the Same Light, to the world.

[1860.  Emerson, Cond. Life, viii. Wks. (Bohn), II. 428. He heard a voice none else could hear From centred and from errant sphere.]

  † c.  In the classification of diseases; = ERRATIC.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. I. ii. (1638), 7. Diseases … Errant, Fixed, Simple [etc.].

  10.  Erring in opinion, conduct, etc.; deviating from the correct standard.

1609.  G. Chapman, End Learn., in Farr, S. P. Jas. I. (1848), 253. Skill, that doth produce But tearmes and tongues, and parroting of arte, Without that powre to rule the errant part.

1676.  Evelyn, Diary, 6 Sept. The famous beauty and errant lady the Dutchesse of Mazarine.

1881.  G. F. Watts, in 19th Cent., March, 452. Correcting errant taste in dress.

1883.  Brit. Q. Rev., July, 4. To counteract an errant condition by another condition which is itself errant.

  b.  Used as sb. rare.

1839.  J. Rogers, Antipopopr., vi. 219. Oh lunacy, insanity, madness … Oh papal errant, how great is your error!… how ridiculous your creed!