Erroneus

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Marked by inaccuracies or faults in reasoning or perception
2. Relating to something that is false or misleading in nature or understanding
3. Containing mistakes or lacking accuracy in facts or ideas

Etymology: Latin "error" meant wandering before it meant mistake. It came from the verb "errare," to stray or roam, and "erroneus" described something that wandered off course. The same root gives English "errant," which once described a wandering knight and still survives in "knight-errant." The sense of straying gradually shifted from the physical to the mental. A person who went astray physically could also go astray in judgment, so a path that led the wrong way came to stand for a belief or statement that was wrong. This is the sense the adjective carries now: something false or misleading in nature or understanding. Your spelling, "erroneus," is a common misspelling of the standard form "erroneous," which keeps the same Latin ancestry through the "-eous" ending.

Synonyms: incorrect, mistaken

Antonyms: correct, accurate