Forms: 4 erur, errur(e, 4, 6 erroure, 4–8 errour, (4–5 arrour, -owre, errowre, 5–6 errore, 6 erore), 4– error. [a. OF. error, errur, errour (mod.Fr. erreur) = Pr. and Sp. error, It. errore:—L. errōr-em, f. errāre to wander, ERR (Some of the early forms may be due to the influence of OF. erreüre:—Lat. type *errātūram).
Down to the end of the 18th c. the prevailing form was errour, which is the form given by Johnson and by Todd (1818); Bailey’s Dict. introduces error in 1753, and this spelling is now universal. (In words which have -rr- before the suffix, as horror, terror, mirror, the spelling of -or for an older -our is accepted by British as well as American writers.)]
I. 1. The action of roaming or wandering; hence a devious or winding course, a roving, winding. Now only poet.
The primary sense in Latin; in Fr. and Eng. it occurs only as a conscious imitation of Lat. usage.
1594. Daniel, Compl. Rosamond, Wks. (1717), 50. Intricate innumerable Ways, With such confused Errors.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, xvi. (1660), 201. Being by error lost, they [dogs] have refused meat.
1636. B. Jonson, Discov., Wks. (ed. Rtldg.), 765/1. His error by sea, the sack of Troy, are put not as the argument of the work.
1654. R. Codrington, trans. Ivstine’s Hist., 318. But Archagathus was taken by them, who had lost his Father in the error of the night.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 239. The crisped Brooks, Rowling … With mazie error under pendant shades.
1673. Ladies Call., I. iv. ¶ 13. 73. She [the moon] has a kind of certainty even in her planetary errors.
1743. R. Blair, Grave, 99. Where the … stream has slid along In grateful errors through the underwood.
1720. Gay, Poems (1745), I. 13. If an enormous salmon chance to spy The wanton errors of the floating fly.
1872. Tennyson, Gareth & Lynette, 1183. The damsel’s headlong error thro’ the wood.
II. † 2. Chagrin, fury, vexation; a wandering of the feelings; extravagance of passion. Obs.
[A common use in OF.; cf. IROUR, a. OF. irour anger, which may have been confused with this word.]
c. 1320. Sir Beues, 1907. Tho was Beues in strong erur.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 5937. Kyng Richard pokyd [? þo kyd] gret errour, Wrathe dede hym chaung colour.
c. 1450. Merlin, xx. 318. A-boute his herte com so grete errour that it wete all his visage with teeres of his yien.
1460. Lybeaus Disc., 1081. The lord wyth greet errour Rod hom to hys tour.
III. The action or state of erring.
3. The condition of erring in opinion; the holding of mistaken notions or beliefs; an instance of this, a mistaken notion or belief; false beliefs collectively. Phrases, To be, stand in, lead into error; † without error = ‘doubtless.’
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16900 (Cott.). Þan sal rise mar þan beforn errur of vr fai. Ibid. (c. 1340), 25225 (Cott. Galb.). All men þat in errure iss for to be broght vnto þi blis.
c. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr., 9. Astronomyenes … þeyre errowre es reproffede of haly doctours. Ibid. (1340), Pr. Consc., 4277. Þus sal þai bring þe folk in errour Thurgh þair prechyng.
c. 1400. Maundev., xxxiv. (Roxb.), 155. To mayntene þam in þaire mawmetry and þaire errour.
a. 1450. Myrc, 63. Forsakest [thou] alle heresies and arrours.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 84. The king Serath confessid thenne openly that without errour appollo was a god.
c. 1500. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 44. And if sche wot nat whoo it is, bute stonde in erore.
1548–9. (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, 127. We are brought out of darkness and error.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. ii. 78. In Religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will blesse it?
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 8. For Error to speake strictly, is a firme assent unto falsity.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 33. The general notion, that springs are colder in summer and warmer in winter, is but a vulgar error.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xv. 340. The paths of error are various and infinite.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 194. This circumstance has led those into error.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. iv. 249. Let us here avoid an error which may readily arise out [of] the foregoing reflections.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 136. Actions done in error are often thought to be involuntary injustice.
b. personified.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 167. God help the man so wrapt in Errours endless train.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., V. iii. 69. O Error soone conceyu’d, Thou … kil’st the Mother that engendred thee.
1646. J. Hall, Horæ Vac., 6. Though error bee blinde, shee sometimes bringeth forth seeing Daughters.
1738. Wesley, Psalms lxxx. xv. And Error in ten thousand Shapes Would every gracious Soul beguile.
† c. A delusion, trick. Obs. rare.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag. (W.), 2353. So longe thai vsed this errour Thai were richcher than th’ emperour.
4. Something incorrectly done through ignorance or inadvertence; a mistake, e.g., in calculation, judgment, speech, writing, action, etc. Phrase, To commit an error. Clerical error (see CLERICAL).
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, Comm. 45. Errour in hit is ther non.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., V. xii. 286. Huchowne bath and þe autore Gyltles ar of gret errore.
1483. Caxton, Cato, 3. I … byseche all suche that fynde faute or errour that of theyr charyte they correcte and amende hit.
1538. Starkey, England, 116. I wyl confesse thys to be a grete errore in our commyn wele.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 250. This is the greatest error of all the rest; the man should be put into the Lanthorne.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. iv. 15. For the errours of Definitions multiply themselves.
1710. H. Bedford, Vind. Ch. Eng., 182. With all the Errors of the Press corrected in it with a Pen.
1781. Cowper, Friendship, iv. Boys care but little whom they trust, An errour soon corrected.
1816. Playfair, Nat. Philos., 323. The first solution of the problem of the Precession … given by Newton … is not free from error.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 125. He could hardly fail to perceive that he had committed a great error.
† b. A mistake in the making of a thing; a miscarriage, mishap; a flaw, malformation. Nature’s error = lusus naturæ. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. i. (1495), 101. This wonderfull errour [abortion] happyth moost in shepe and geete.
1413. Lydg., Pilgr. Sowle, IV. xxx. (1483), 78. Hit behoueth … that it [a statue] be fourged right withoute ony errour.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Cymon & Iphig., 543 (J.).
| He look’d like Nature’s Error; as the Mind | |
| And Body were not of a Piece design’d. |
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), I. 87. Sure, thou art an errour of nature.
c. Law. A mistake in matter of law appearing on the proceedings of a court of record. Writ of error: a writ brought to procure the reversal of a judgment, on the ground of error. By the Judicature Act of 1875 writs of error are limited to criminal cases; in civil cases appeal is substituted. Plaintiff, defendant in error: the parties for or against whom the writ of error is used. Court of error (U.S.), a court of appeal in cases of error. † Clerk of the errors (see quot. 1706).
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 59 § 2. The seid utlagaries … were reversed by meane of errour aftir the due order of your lawes.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 142. Errour is a fault in a judgement, or in the processe, or proceeding to judgment, or in the execution upon the same in a Court of Record.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. II. 41. Lawyers … Do stave and tail with Writs of Error.
1699. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 505. The place of clerk of the errors, worth £400 per annum.
1706. Phillips, Clerk of the Errours, an Officer of the Common-Pleas, whose Business it is to Copy out and Certifie the Tenour of the Records of a Cause or Action, upon which the Writ of Errour is brought into any of those Courts.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, Prol. i. 31. No writ of error lies—to Drury Lane!
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius, II. 1121. If the defendant avow for so much rent arrear, part whereof is not due at the time of the distress, and enters judgment for the whole, it will be error.
1821. Marshall, Const. Opin. (1839), 239. The counsel for the defendant in error.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), II. xii. 418. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries writs of error from inferior courts to the house of lords became far less usual.
d. Math. The quantity by which a result obtained by observation or by approximate calculation differs from an accurate determination. Error of a planet: the difference between its observed place and that indicated by calculation. Error of a clock: the difference between the time that it indicates and that which it ought to indicate.
1726. trans. Gregory’s Astron., I. 123. All the Errors of the Body L, arise from the Forces represented by the Right lines AM, MN.
1833. Sir J. Herschel, Astron., iii. 136. By applying its [clock’s] error and rate … he can correct its indications.
1838. De Morgan, Probab., 135. The number of positive and negative errors will in the long run be equal.
1878. Tait & Stewart, Unseen Univ., iii. 123. The same law as that of the Probability of error.
5. A departure from moral rectitude; a transgression, wrong-doing.
In mod. use conveying the notion either of something not wholly voluntary, and so excusable, or of something imprudent as well as blameable. Cf. 4.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 78. William the Conquerour changis his wikked wille, Out of his first errour.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 21. Where lawe lacketh errour groweth.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 11. That they shuld escheue al errours & applye them to all good dedis.
1535. Coverdale, Wisd. i. 12. O seke not youre owne death in ye erroure of your life.
1611. Bible, Heb. ix. 7. Blood, which he offered for himselfe, and for the errors of the people.
1713. Berkeley, in Guardian, No. 8. Allusions to the errors of a very wild life.
1792. Burke, Corr. (1844), III. 407. It is an error, not of the head, but of the heart.
1800. Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., II. 261. Capital vices? Say, rather, fashionable errors.
1851. Kingsley, Lett. (1878), I. 252. Every error must in God’s universe, bring down on itself … some cognate misery.
6. Comb., as error-blasted, -darkened, -proof, -stricken, -tainted, -teaching, adjs.; error-holder.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler (ed. 3), 16. As a rationall minde would never entertain, if it were not *Error-blasted from Heaven and Hell.
1657. S. W., Schism Dispach’t, 558. The obscurity of ambiguities is most proper and least offensive to his *errour-darkned eyes.
1577. Vicary’s Anat., To Rdr. 9. They are … condemned for ignoraunt men, and *errour-holders.
1646. Shirley, To Stanley. Let me deal plainly with your youth, Not *error-proof yet.
1871. E. F. Burr, Ad Fidem, iv. 63. Bring truth home, to *error-stricken souls.
1657. S. W., Schism Dispach’t, 239. The poison of heresy and *error-tainted opinions.
1833. G. S. Faber, Recapitulated Apostasy, 72. Giving heed to *error-teaching spirits and to doctrines concerning demons.
