astray

What it means

1. Away from the proper path; in a wrong or unknown direction.

   Go, set the storm-winds free, / And sink their ships or scatter them astray, / And strew their corpses forth, to weltering waves a prey.

   1907, Virgil, “1.X”, in Edward Fairfax Taylor, transl., The Æneid of Virgil, London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.

2. Away from what is right and good; into error or evil.

In a sentence

Go, set the storm-winds free, / And sink their ships or scatter them astray, / And strew their corpses forth, to weltering waves a prey.

1907, Virgil, “1.X”, in Edward Fairfax Taylor, transl., The Æneid of Virgil, London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.

Where it comes from

1. Latinextra“beyond”
2. Medieval Latinextravagari“to wander beyond”
3. Old Frenchestraier“to stray”
4. Middle Englishastraien
5. Englishastray

From Middle English astraien or by apheresis straien, from Old French estraier (“to stray”), from late Medieval Latin extravagari (“to wander beyond”), from Latin extra (“beyond”) + vagārī (“to wander, stray”).