different between ephemeral vs errant

English

Etymology

From New Latin ephemerus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (eph?meros), the more common form of ????????? (eph?mérios, “of, for, or during the day, living or lasting but for a day, short-lived, temporary”), from ??? (epí, “on”) + ????? (h?méra, “day”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f?.m?.??l/, /??f?.m?.??l/
• Rhymes: -???l

Noun

ephemeral (plural ephemerals)

1. Something which lasts for a short period of time.

   Synonym: ephemeron

Derived terms

• spring ephemeral

Adjective

ephemeral (comparative more ephemeral, superlative most ephemeral)

1. Lasting for a short period of time.

   Synonyms: temporary, transitory, fleeting, evanescent, momentary, short-lived, short, volatile; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral

   Antonyms: permanent, eternal, everlasting, timeless

   • 1821-1822, Vicesimus Knox, Remarks on the tendency of certain Clauses in a Bill now pending in Parliament to degrade Grammar Schools

     Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.

   • 1853, James Stephen, Lecture on the right use of Books

     sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal, efficacy
2. (biology) Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.
3. (geology, of a body of water) Usually dry, but filling with water for brief periods during and after precipitation.
   • 1986, W.H. Raymond, "Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.", in Y?ichi Murakami et al. (editors), New Developments in Zeolite Science and Technology (conference proceedings), Elsevier, ?ISBN, page 80:

     The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.

Derived terms

• ephemerally

Related terms

• ephemera
• ephemeron
• ephemerality
• hemeral

Translations

Further reading

• ephemeral in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ephemeral in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ephemeral on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• erraunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English erraunt, from Anglo-Norman erraunt, from Old French errant, from Latin errans (“wandering”). Doublet of arrant.

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /????nt/
• Homophone: arrant (in accents with the Mary–marry–merry merger)

Adjective

errant (comparative more errant, superlative most errant)

1. Straying from the proper course or standard, or outside established limits.
2. Wandering; roving around.
3. Prone to making errors; misbehaved.

   We ran down the street in pursuit of the errant dog.

4. (proscribed) Utter, complete (negative); arrant.

Usage notes

Sometimes arrant (“utter, complete”) is considered simply an alternative spelling and pronunciation of errant, though most authorities distinguish them, reserving errant to mean “wandering” and using it after the noun it modifies, notably in “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 primarily used in set phrases (which may be considered cliché) and, since they are easily confused, some authorities suggest against using either.

Synonyms

• (utter, complete): arrant (generally distinguished; see usage)

Derived terms

• knight-errant
• arrant

Translations

Noun

errant (plural errants)

1. A knight-errant.

References

• “errant”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, ?ISBN
• Paul Brians (May 17, 2016) , “arrant/errant”, in Common Errors in English Usage?^[3]
• William Safire (January 22, 2006) , “On Language: Arrant Nonsense”, in New York Times?^[4]
• “errant, arrant”, in Merriam–Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage?^[5], 1995, page 406

Anagrams

• Ranter, Ratner, Terran, ranter, terran

French

Etymology

From Old French errant, from Latin err?ns, err?ntem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.???/

Verb

errant

1. present participle of errer

Adjective

errant (feminine singular errante, masculine plural errants, feminine plural errantes)

1. wandering, stray
2. errant (clarification of this definition is needed)

Further reading

• “errant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• rentra

Latin

Verb

errant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of err?

Old French

Etymology

Present participle of errer (“to wander”), from Latin iter? (“I travel; I voyage”) rather than from err?, which is the ancestor of the other etymology of error (“to err; to make an error”).

Adjective

errant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular errant or errante)

1. wandering; nomadic

Descendants

• English: errant
• French: errant