errans

Latin

Etymology

Present active participle of errō.

Participle

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

  1. straying, errant, erring, going astray
  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, [so I could see Helen,] and [she] by wandering here and there, through [it] all [was still] 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
      [His] wife, dearest to the grove, frees [him from] wandering.
      (Egeria (mythology) explains a dream which King Numa Pompilius cannot understand; idiomatically, Egeria resolves his uncertainty.)
  4. mistaking

Declension

Third-declension participle.

singular plural
masc./fem. neuter masc./fem. neuter
nominative errāns errantēs errantia
genitive errantis errantium
dative errantī errantibus
accusative errantem errāns errantēs
errantīs 		errantia
ablative errante
errantī1 		errantibus
vocative errāns errantēs errantia

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[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • the planets: stellae errantes, vagae
    • to direct a person who has lost his way: erranti viam monstrare
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