Erroring or Erring?

Question

Is it more correct to say a computer program is erroring out, or it is erring out? Or are both statements grammatically incorrect?

Only the former makes sense to me. To err is human, after all. — Tyler James Young, Oct 05 '13 at 04:37
Not a dup - the other is about errored this is about erroring — Mr_and_Mrs_D, Mar 15 '15 at 11:35
Not a dup - the other questions are regarding technical messages in a program, this is conversational — Wayne, Feb 19 '16 at 18:16

score 19 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 05 '13 at 11:27

19

erroring

error (third-person singular simple present errors, present participle erroring, simple past and past participle errored)

answered Oct 05 '13 at 11:27

Kris

37,386

Note the American Heritage Dictionary (which I tend to favor as the ultimate authoritative source for US English) does not include error as a verb: https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=error
So erring would be correct, but erroring would not, which agrees with the autocorrect on Mac OS / Firefox.
– airstrike Sep 22 '23 at 18:20

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 05 '13 at 03:36

-1

I would say that neither one is correct (from a programmer). You could say "... has an error and crashed ..." ("crashed" being the technical term for a program that suddenly stops or breaks down - except for airplane-related programs).

But that's American usage - British programmers may differ.

answered Oct 05 '13 at 03:36

ZZMike

1,313

5

I'm an American programmer and I hear "error" used as a verb all the time, often in exactly OP's construction. – Tyler James Young Oct 05 '13 at 04:39
5

As an American Software Analyst I hear, and use, "erroring out" quite frequently when discussing certain types of crashes with end users. – Wayne Feb 19 '16 at 18:11

Erroring or Erring?

2 Answers2