wander

Meanings

Verb

• To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.
• To stray; stray from one's course; err.
• To commit adultery.
• To go somewhere indirectly or at varying speeds; to move in a curved path.
• Of the mind, to lose focus or clarity of argument or attention.

Noun

• An act or instance of wandering.
• The situation where a value or signal etc. deviates from the correct or normal value.

Origin

• From Middle English wandren, wandrien, from Old English wandrian, from Proto-Germanic *wandrōną, from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ-, equivalent to wend + -er. Cognate with Scots wander, German wandern, Swedish vandra.