Errand

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɛɹənd/

Definitions

1. A brief journey made to deliver a message or item or to pick something up
2. A quick outing intended to accomplish a small task such as fetching or delivering goods
3. A short mission or trip undertaken to carry out a minor chore or deliver something

Etymology: The "errand" you send someone on is a message, not a chore. In Old English, "ǣrende" meant a message or a commission, something a person was sent to carry or do, and that sense of being dispatched on someone else's behalf is what the word still carries. The shopping trip is a later narrowing: a task that sends you out of the house on someone's behalf, and eventually just a short trip to the shops. The word came into Middle English as "erande" and "erende," and it traces back to a Proto-West Germanic form, "*ārundī," which also meant message or errand. Its ancestry is entirely Germanic, so it never passed through Latin or French on the way into English.

Synonyms: task, chore, mission, assignment, job

Antonyms: idleness, leisure, inactivity