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Precarious vs Erratic - What's the difference?

precarious | erratic |

As adjectives the difference between precarious and erratic

is that precarious is dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous while erratic is unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent.

As a noun erratic is

a rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.

precarious

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) , and Spanish and Italian precario.

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (comparable) Dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.}}
  • (legal) Depending on the intention of another.

    • Synonyms

    * (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) unsteady, rickety, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

    Usage notes

    * Because the (term) element of (term) derives from prex and not the preposition prae, this term cannot — etymologically speaking — be written as *.

    Quotations

    * 1906 , (Jack London), , part I, ch III, *: Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious .

    Derived terms

    * precariously * precariousness * precariat * precarisation, precarization * precarity

    External links

    * *

    Etymology 2

    pre-'' + ''carious

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (dentistry) Relating to incipient caries.

    • erratic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * erratick, erraticke, erratique (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent
    • Henry has been getting erratic scores on his tests: 40% last week, but 98% this week.
  • Deviating from the common course in opinion or conduct; eccentric; odd.
    • erratic conduct

    Derived terms

    * erratically

    Antonyms

    * consistent

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (geology) A rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.
  • * 2003 , (Bill Bryson), A Short History of Nearly Everything , BCA 2003, p. 372:
    • The term for a displaced boulder is an erratic , but in the nineteenth century the expression seemed to apply more often to the theories than to the rocks.
  • Anything that has erratic characteristics.

    • Anagrams

    *