Emily Dickinson Lexicon

E-RO-TOM'A-NY, n. [Gr. ερως, love, and mania.]

The melancholy of lovers.

ER-PE-TOL'O-GIST, n. [Gr. ερπετος, reptile, and λογος, discourse.]

One who writes on the subject of reptiles, or is versed in the natural history of reptiles. Ch. Observer.

ER-PE-TOL'O-GY, n. [supra.]

That part of natural history which treats of reptiles. Dict. of Nat. Hist.

ERR, v.i. [L. erro; Fr. errer; Sp. errar; It. errare; G. irren; Sw. irra; Dan. irrer.]

1. To wander from the right way; to deviate from the true course or purpose. But errs not nature from this gracious end, / From burning suns when livid deaths descend? Pope.
2. To miss the right way, in morals or religion; to deviate from the path or line of duty; to stray by design or mistake. We have erred and strayed like lost sheep. Com. Prayer.
3. To mistake; to commit error; to do wrong from ignorance or inattention. Men err in judgment from ignorance, from want of attention to facts, or from previous bias of mind.
4. To wander; to ramble. A storm of strokes, well meant, with fury flies, / And errs about their temples, ears, and eyes. Dryden.

ER'RA-BLE, a.

Liable to mistake; fallible. [Little used.]

ER'RA-BLE-NESS, n.

Liableness to mistake or error. We may infer from the errableness of our natures, the reasonableness of compassion to the seduced. Decay of Piety.

ER'RAND, n. [Sax. ærend, a message, mandate, legation, business, narration; ærendian, to tell or relate; Sw. ärende; Dan. ærinde.]

1. A verbal message; a mandate or order; something to be told or done; a communication to be made to some person at a distance. The servant was sent on an errand; he told his errand; he has done the errand. These are the most common modes of using this word. I have a secret errand to thee, O king. Judges iii.
2. Any special business to be transacted by a messenger.

ER'RANT, a. [Fr. errant; L. errans, from erro, to err.]

1. Wandering; roving; rambling; applied particularly to knights, who, in the middle ages, wandered about to seek adventures and display their heroism and generosity, called knights errant.
2. Deviating from a certain course. Shak.
3. Itinerant. [Obs.]

ER'RANT, n. [For arrant, an old orthography; see Arrant.]

ER'RANT-RY, n.

1. A wandering; a roving or rambling about. Addison.
2. The employment of a knight errant.

ER-RAT'IC, a.

In geology, applied to transported materials on the earth's surface, as erratic blocks, sand and gravel. Erratic phenomena; phenomena that relate to transported materials on the earth's surface.

ER-RAT'IC, or ER-RAT'IC-AL, a. [L. erraticus, from erro, to wander.]

1. Wandering; having no certain course; roving about without a fixed destination. Pope.
2. Moving; not fixed or stationary; applied to the planets, as distinguished from the fixed stars.
3. Irregular; mutable. Harvey.

ER-RAT'IC-AL-LY, adv.

Without rule, order or established method; irregularly. Brown.

ER-RA'TION, n.

A wandering. [Not used.]

ER-RA'TUM, n. [plur. errata. See Err.]

An error or mistake in writing or printing. A list of the errata of a book is usually printed at the beginning or end, with references to the pages and lines in which they occur.

ERR'ED, v. [pret. of Err.]

ER'RHINE, a. [er'rine; Gr. ερῥινον; εν and ῥιν, the nose.]

Affecting the nose, or to be snuffed into the nose; occasioning discharges from the nose.

ER'RHINE, n. [er'rine.]

A medicine to be snuffed up the nose, to promote discharges of mucus. Coxe. Encyc.

ER'RING, ppr.

Wandering from the truth or the right way; mistaking; irregular.

ER-RO'NE-OUS, a. [L. erroneus, from erro, to err.]

1. Wandering; roving; unsettled. They roam / Erroneous and disconsolate. Philips.
2. Deviating; devious; irregular; wandering from the right course. Erroneous circulation of blood. Arbuthnot. [The foregoing applications of the word are less common.]
3. Mistaking; misled; deviating, by mistake, from the truth. Destroy not the erroneous with the malicious.
4. Wrong; false; mistaken; not conformable to truth; erring from truth or justice; as, an erroneous opinion or judgment.

ER-RO'NE-OUS-LY, adv.

By mistake; not rightly; falsely.

ER-RO'NE-OUS-NESS, n.

The state of being erroneous, wrong or false; deviation from right; inconformity to truth; as, the erroneousness of a judgment or proposition.

ER'ROR, n. [L. error, from erro, to wander.]

1. A wandering or deviation from the truth; a mistake in judgment, by which men assent to or believe what is not true. Error may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary, when men neglect or pervert the proper means to inform the mind; involuntary, when the means of judging correctly are not in their power. An error committed through carelessness or haste is a blunder. Charge home upon error its most tremendous consequences. J. M. Mason.
2. A mistake made in writing or other performance. It is no easy task to correct the errors of the press. Authors sometimes charge their own errors to the printer.
3. A wandering; excursion; irregular course. Driv'n by the winds and errors of the sea. Dryden. [This sense is unusual and hardly legitimate.]
4. Deviation from law, justice or right; oversight; mistake in conduct. Say not, it was an error. Eccles. v.
5. In Scripture and theology, sin; iniquity; transgression. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Ps. xix.
6. In law, a mistake in pleading or in judgment. A writ of error, is a writ founded on an alledged error in judgment, which carries the suit to another tribunal for redress. Hence the following verb,

ER'ROR, v.t.

To determine a judgment of court to be erroneous. [The use of this verb is not well authorized.]

ER'ROR-IST, n.

One who errs, or who encourages and propagates error.