Vagrant vs Errant - What's the difference?
vagrant | errant |
A person without a home or job.
* 2002 , ,
A wanderer.
(ornithology) A bird found outside its species’ usual range.
Moving without certain direction; wandering; erratic; unsettled.
* Prior
* Macaulay
Wandering from place to place without any settled habitation.
Straying from the proper course or standard, or outside established limits.
* Sir Thomas Browne
Prone to making errors.
(proscribed) Utter, complete (negative); arrant.
* Ben Jonson
As adjectives the difference between vagrant and errant
is that vagrant is moving without certain direction; wandering; erratic; unsettled while errant is straying from the proper course or standard, or outside established limits.As a noun vagrant
is a person without a home or job.vagrant
English
(wikipedia vagrant)Noun
(en noun)WIGU: Day two begins
- Paisley: What smells like dinosaur crap?
- Mother: Your brother wants people to think we’re vagrants .
- Wigu: I stink.
- Every morning before work, I see that poor vagrant around the neighborhood begging for food.
Synonyms
* beggar * down-and-out * drifter * itinerant * tramp * wanderer * vagabond * See alsoDerived terms
* vagrancyAdjective
(en adjective)- That beauteous Emma vagrant courses took.
- While leading this vagrant and miserable life, Johnson fell in love.
- a vagrant beggar
errant
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- seven planets or errant stars in the lower orbs of heaven
- would make me an errant fool
Usage notes
Sometimes is considered simply an alternative spelling and pronunciation of errant', though many authorities distinguish them, reserving '''errant''' to mean “wandering” and using it ''after'' the noun it modifies, notably is “knight '''errant ”, while using ''arrant'' to mean “utter”, in a negative sense, and ''before'' the noun it modifies, notably in “''arrant knaves”. Etymologically, arrant arose as a variant of errant , but the meanings have long since diverged. Both terms are archaic, primarily used in set phrases (which may be considered ), and are easily confused, and on that basis some authorities suggest against using either.Synonyms
*Derived terms
* (l) * (l)References
* “arrant/errant”, Common Errors in English Usage, Paul Brians *
On Language: Arrant Nonsense, (William Safire), January 22, 2006, (New York Times) * Merriam–Webster’s dictionary of English usage, 1995,
“errant, arrant”, pp. 406–407