arrant
adjEtymology
A variant of errant, from Middle English erraunt [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman erraunt, from Old French errant, the present participle of errer (“to walk (to); to wander (to); (figuratively) to travel, voyage”), and then: * from Vulgar Latin iterō (compare Late Latin itinerō, itineror (“to travel, voyage”)), from Latin iter (“a route (including a journey, trip; a course; a path; a road)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”); and * from Latin errāns (“straying, errant; wandering”), the present active participle of errō (“to rove, wander; to get lost, go astray; to err, wander from the truth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers- (“to flow”). The original sense was sense 3 (“roving around, wandering”). Due to the word being used to describe disreputable persons who wandered about (for example, arrant knave and arrant thief), it came to be used as an intensifier (sense 1: “complete; downright; utter”) and to have a negative meaning (sense 2: “very bad; despicable”).
Definitions
Complete
Complete; downright; utter.
- an arrant knave arrant nonsense
- To a Nunnery goe, vve are arrant knaues all, / Beleeue none of vs, to a Nunnery goe.
Very bad
Very bad; despicable.
- [W]ho ſo forward to accuſe, to debaſe, to revile, to crow-treade an other as the arranteſt fellow in a country?
- The truth on't is, mine's as arrant a VVidow-Mother, to her poor Child, as any's in Engand: She vvo'nt ſo much as let one have ſix-pence in one's Pocket, to ſee a Motion, or the Dancing of the Ropes, or—
Obsolete form of errant (“roving around
Obsolete form of errant (“roving around; wandering”).
- Hence arrant preachers, humming out / A common-place or two, […]
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
A surname.
The neighborhood
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for arrant. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA