Errour

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling of a mistake or inaccuracy in judgment or action ; a straying from what is right, or from the truth, in belief or conduct
2. Older form meaning a faulty act or incorrect statement ; a wandering from virtue or from the correct path, especially in matters of faith
3. A mistaken deed or false belief in earlier English ; a moral deviation or sinful wandering away from what is true and proper

Etymology: The spelling "errour" is simply an older form of "error", and the word's earliest sense was physical rather than moral: a wandering. Latin "error" meant "wandering about," and it came from the verb "errare," which meant to roam, stray or lose one's way. The notion of mistake grew out of that image of going astray, so a mistaken belief or a wrong action was imagined as a path taken off course. The word reached English through Anglo-Norman and Old French, which had already borrowed it from Latin, and it entered Middle English in this "errour" spelling. Before it became established, English had a native term, "dwild," meaning error, which it displaced. The word's kinship with "err" is direct: "error" is essentially "err" with the suffix "-or," which forms nouns of state or condition. A related Gothic pair, "airzjan" (to lead astray) and "airzei" (error), shows that the wandering idea was ancient and shared across Germanic languages.

Synonyms: error, mistake, blunder, fault, slip