/ˈɛr.ən.si/
noun · etym: noemic-latinate · errare (to wander, to err) + -ancy · cf. knight-errant, aberrant
the temptation to take a wrong turn deliberately.
errancy is what overtakes a competent walker at a perfectly familiar junction. one knows which way is home. one chooses the other. nothing is to be gained; a small chamber of the afternoon opens up, into which one steps for no reason that can be defended in advance. the lost wing accepts such visitors without question.
errancy is distinguished from being lost. one is not lost in an errancy; one knows precisely where one is and where one ought to be. some readers of the labyrinth treat errancy as a kind of ritual; some as a mild infidelity to the day's plan. compare brevicount, which it occasionally interrupts.
in a sentence: "i fell into an errancy on the way home, and ended up walking past the church for the second time."
see also · brevicount threshhold lost errata road