erratic

Overview

Meaning Now

• Unpredictable and irregular in movement, behavior, or pattern.
• Not following a steady, normal, or expected course.
• In geology, moved from its original place by natural forces, especially by a glacier.

Journey

Erratic entered English as a learned borrowing from Latin and kept a strongly formal tone at first. In geology, an erratic is a rock carried far from its original location, often by glacial ice; this scientific sense preserves the older idea of something "wandering" away from its place.

Evolution

1. Classical Latin

   erraticus

   “wandering, roaming, not fixed”

   Past participial adjective from errare, "to wander, stray, err".

2. Late Latin

   erraticus

   “wandering; stray; irregular”

   Extended from physical wandering to irregular or off-course behavior.

3. 16th-century English

   erratic

   “wandering; not fixed; irregular”

   Borrowed from Latin into learned English vocabulary.

4. Modern English

   erratic

   “unpredictable, irregular, inconsistent”

   Now common in general and scientific use; geology preserved a more literal sense for boulders transported by glaciers.

Connections

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