1. Wandering; straying from the right way.
2. (Biol.)
Defn: Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; exceptional;
abnormal.
The more aberrant any form is, the greater must have been the number
of connecting forms which, on my theory, have been exterminated.
Darwin.
ABERRATE Ab"er*rate, v.i. Etym: [L. aberratus, p.pr. of aberrare; ab + errare to wander. See Err.]
Defn: To go astray; to diverge. [R.]
Their own defective and aberrating vision. De Quincey.
ABERRATION
Ab`er*ra"tion, n. Etym: [L. aberratio: cf. F. aberration. See
Aberrate.]
1. The act of wandering; deviation, especially from truth or moral rectitude, from the natural state, or from a type. "The aberration of youth." Hall. "Aberrations from theory." Burke.
2. A partial alienation of reason. "Occasional aberrations of intellect." Lingard. Whims, which at first are the aberrations of a single brain, pass with heat into epidemic form. I. Taylor.
3. (Astron.)
Defn: A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and dairy or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4'', and in the latter, to 0.3''. Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth.