arrant

adj

Etymology: 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”).

1. Complete; downright; utter.

   “an arrant knave    arrant nonsense”

   “And if any manner of perſon attempted to moue the King to infringe any parte of thys ordynaunce, and that being knowne, for the firſt time, he ſhould be depriued of his goodes and poſſeſſions, and for the ſecond time, to be drawen thorough the Citie, and so put to execution as an arrant traytor.”

2. 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—”

3. Obsolete form of errant (“roving around; wandering”).

   “Hence arrant preachers, humming out / A common-place or two, […]”

name

1. A surname.