errans

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Latin

Etymology

Present active participle of errō.

Participle

errāns (genitive errantis); third-declension one-termination participle

  1. straying, errant, erring
  2. wandering, wandering about, roving, straying, roaming
    • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.569–570:
      “ dant clāram incendia lūcem / errantī passimque oculōs per cūncta ferentī.”
      “ the fires gave bright light to my eyes, and by wandering here and there, through all surviving.”
    • An ellipsis of stēlla errāns (wandering star) (i.e. "planet")
  3. (figuratively) wandering as an unclear mental state
    • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.669:
      expedit errantem nemorī grātissima coniūnx
      wife, dearest to the grove, frees wandering.
      (Egeria (mythology) explains a dream which King Numa Pompilius cannot understand; idiomatically, Egeria resolves his uncertainty.)

Declension

Third-declension participle.

1When used purely as an adjective.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Italian: errante
  • Old French: errant
  • Portuguese: errante
  • Spanish: errante

References

  • errans”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • errans in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • the planets: stellae errantes, vagae
    • to direct a person who has lost his way: erranti viam monstrare