Etymograph

English

aberration

Aberration comes from Latin aberrātiō ‘relief, diversion’, and goes back to aberrō ‘wander away, go astray’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaberrō‘wander away, go astray’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEaberrātiō‘relief, diversion’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1819aberration

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEaberrō‘wander away, go astray’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEaberrātiō‘relief, diversion’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1819aberration

Earliest quotation: 1819, John Lingard, The History of England: “Occasional aberrations of intellect”.

A compound of ab ‘away’ + errō ‘wander’

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep

Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó ‘off, away’

Proto-Italic *ap ‘from, off, away’

Latin ab ‘away’

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers- ‘to flow’

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers-eh₂ye-ti

Proto-Italic *erzāō ‘to roam, wander’

Latin errō ‘wander’

first attested A learned borrowing from Latin aberrātiō(n) (“relief, diversion”), first attested in 1594, from aberrō (“wander away, go astray”), from ab (“away”) + errō (“wander”) (as stated in the etymology)

The story

A learned borrowing from Latin aberrātiō(n) (‘relief, diversion’), first attested in 1594, from aberrō (‘wander away, go astray’), from ab (‘away’) + errō (‘wander’).

Every English word from Latin aberrō

Today it means

noun The act of wandering; deviation from truth, moral rectitude; abnormal; divergence from the straight, correct, proper, normal, or from the natural state.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin aberrō / aberration

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