- error (n.)
- also, through 18c., errour, c.1300, from Old French error "mistake, flaw, defect, heresy," from Latin errorem (nominative error) "a wandering, straying, mistake," from errare "to wander" (see err).
Words for "error" in most Indo-European languages originally meant "wander, go astray" (but cf. Irish dearmad "error," from dermat "a forgetting").