Pl. errata. [a. L. errātum, neut. pa. pple. of errāre: see ERR.]
1. An error in writing or printing; chiefly, an error noted in a list of corrections attached to a printed book.
1589. Marprel. Epit., G b. Errata, or faults escaped.
1632. Quarles, Div. Fancies, IV. xxxv. (1660), 151. The World’s a Book,… ’Tis falsly printed, though divinely penn’d, And all th’ Errata will appear at th’ end.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 247. God … upon a Solemn Review of his Works … found not one Erratum in the whole Book of Nature.
1714. Spect., No. 579, ¶ 1. The Company of Stationers … made a very remarkable Erratum or Blunder in one of their Editions [of the Bible].
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. Pref. p. xxviii. The long catalogue of errata, that disfigures this work.
c. 1817. Hogg, Tales & Sk., II. 234. An erratum to a volume.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. vi. 142. The errata are put immediately before the body of the work, or at the end of it.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. Pref. p. vii. I have inserted as corrections under the head of errata.
b. transf.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 26. This I therefore reckon one of the first errata of my life.
¶ 2. a. Like other plurals in -a, errata often appears in 17–18th c. with the addition of -’s or -es without alteration of sense. b. At the same period, errata occurs as a sing., = ‘list of errata,’ and in that sense takes -es in pl.
a. 1644. Quarles, Sheph. Orac., xi. Hee’s a page Fill’d with Errata’s of the present age.
1678. Yng. Man’s Call., 53. Look back upon time past by was of reflection, that the former Errata’s and miscarriages of life may be henceforth corrected, prevented, and seen no more.
1727. Swift, Further Acc. E. Curll. Resolved, That a number of effective errata’s be raised out of Pope’s Homer.
b. 1635. T. Lambarde, To Rdr., in W. Lambarde’s Archeion. Those that … swallow the Errours for Errataes.
1650. Earl Monm., trans. Senault’s Man bec. Guilty, A. 4 a. I have made an Amends by printing an Errata.
1659. Heylin, Examen Hist., II. 150. Such Misnomers are so frequent in him, as might make a sufficient Errata at the end of his History.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 105. The Errataes at the end of books.
3. attrib. in pl.
a. 1852. Moore, Devil among Schol., 35. In whom the dear errata column Is the best page in all the volume!
