erratic

• erratick, erraticke, erratique (all obsolete)

Borrowed from Old French erratique, from Latin erraticus.

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈɹætɪk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætɪk

erratic (comparative more erratic, superlative most erratic)

1. unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent

   Henry has been getting erratic scores on his tests: 40% last week, but 98% this week.

2. Deviating from normal opinions or actions; eccentric; odd.

   erratic conduct

• consistent

• erratically

erratic (plural erratics)

1. (geology) A rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.
   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA 2003, p. 372:

     The term for a displaced boulder is an erratic, but in the nineteenth century the expression seemed to apply more often to the theories than to the rocks.

2. Anything that has erratic characteristics.

• (glaciers): dropstone

• Cartier, cirrate, rice rat