Phrase guide

separative error

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

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1

noun

Meaning 1

An error indicating that one manuscript has not been copied from another.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences, textual-criticism

Examples

  • 1975, Robert Krueger (ed.), The Poems of Sir John Davies, Oxford: Clarendon Press, Commentary, p. 318, Although the three extant manuscripts show different states of revision, no one descends from another; each has separative errors.
  • 2012, Marko Halonen, Stemmatology of a 16th Century Chronicle, Master’s Thesis, Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, p. 16, A separative error can reveal [to] us that a certain manuscript was not copied from another manuscript. [...] For example, the scribe of manuscript A missed a whole line of a text when he was copying. Now the text in manuscript A makes no sense (because a whole line is missing), but it would be impossible for the scribe of J to know what exactly is missing and to add it absolutely correctly. If J, then has kept this line which is clearly missing from A, we can argue that J is not a copy of A, but a copy of another manuscript, which had not missed that line [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

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