arrant
/ˈæɹ(ə)nt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.89 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "To a Nunnery goe, vve are arrant knaues all, / Beleeue none of vs, to a Nunnery goe."
- "She bags of Gold out of her boſome drevv, / VVhich ſhe to Sots and arrant Ideots threvv."
- "He cals her on a ſudden, all to naught; ſhe is a ſtrumpet, a light huswife, a bitch, an arrant whore."
- "There be, vvho knovvs not that there be of Proteſtants and profeſſors vvho live and dye in as arrant an implicit faith, as any lay Papiſt of Loretto."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈæɹ(ə)nt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more arrant (comparative)
arranter (comparative)
most arrant (superlative)
arrantest (superlative)
errant (alternative)
Arrants (plural)