Other forms: aberrations
An aberration is a departure from what is normal, usually a brief one. A temporary aberration, a mental aberration, an aberration in the data.
It implies the thing will return to normal, which is why it is a comforting word to use about a bad result. In optics an aberration is a fault in a lens that blurs or colours the image, and correcting them is most of what lens design is.
1nounaberrationA departure from what is normal, usually a brief one.
“His poor exam result was an aberration; he normally gets top marks.”
aberration is a departure.
The Latin is ab, away, and erro, to wander: the same wander that gives us error. An aberration has wandered away from the normal for a moment.
hooks ontowander
Latin aberratio comes from aberrare, to wander away — ab, away, plus errare, to wander.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁ers-
Latin
aberrātiō — relief, diversion
English, today
aberration
Built from
A Latin aberrātiō (“relief, diversion”), first attested in 1594, from aberrō (“wander away, go astray”), from ab (“away”) + errō (“wander”). Compare French aberration. by surface analysis, aberrat(e) + aberrate + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA